Brunei Adopts Sharia Law - Robert Alexander

Brunei adopts sharia law amid international outcry

By Arshiya Khullar, for CNN

updated 5:45 AM EDT, Thu May 1, 2014

Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah delivers a speech during the official ceremony of the implementation of sharia law.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Brunei has become the first East Asian country to adopt sharia law
• The sharia-based penal code will eventually include death by stoning
• International human rights groups have publicly condemned the move

(CNN) -- Brunei has become the first East Asian country to adopt sharia law, despite widespread condemnation from international human rights groups.

The Islamic criminal law is set to include punishments such as flogging, dismemberment and death by stoning for crimes such as rape, adultery and sodomy. The religious laws will operate alongside the existing civil penal code.

During a ceremony Wednesday morning, the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, announced the commencement of the first phase of the sharia-based penal code, according to the government'sofficial website.

The oil-rich kingdom, located on the island of Borneo, has a population of just 412,000 people. The country already follows a more conservative Islamic rule than neighboring Muslim-dominated countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, and has implemented strict religiously-motivated laws, such as the banning of the sale of alcohol.

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London group aims to enforce Sharia law

Stringent laws

In response to the new set of laws, human rights group Amnesty International said that it will "take the country back to the dark ages."

"It (the law) makes a mockery of the country's international human rights commitments and must be revoked immediately," Amnesty's regional deputy director Rupert Abbott said in a statement released after the announcement.

Most parts of the new Islamic code will apply to both Muslims and non-Muslims, affecting people from the Christian and Buddhist communities. Around 70 percent of people in Brunei are Malay Muslims, while the remainder of the population are of Chinese or other ethnic descent.

The Sultan, who is also the Prime Minister, first announced the law in October 2013. As per its provisions, sexual offenses such as rape, adultery and sodomy will be considered punishable acts for Muslims. Consensual sex between homosexuals will also be criminalized, with death by stoning the prescribed punishment.

In announcing the implementation of sharia law, the government website quoted the Sultan as saying that his government "does not expect other people to accept and agree with it, but that it would suffice if they just respect the nation in the same way that it also respects them."

Widespread condemnation

LGBT advocacy groups in Asia have voiced their opposition to Brunei's implementation of sharia law.

"It may open the floodgates for further human rights violations against women, children, and other people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity," officials from the Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health (APCOM) and Islands of South East Asian Network on Male and Transgender Sexual Health (ISEAN), said in a joint statement released last week.

The United Nations has also publicly condemned the move.

"Under international law, stoning people to death constitutes torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and is thus clearly prohibited," Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a press briefing in Geneva last month.

Anti-women provisions

He further expressed concerns about the implementation of sharia law's impact on women.

"A number of UN studies have revealed that women are more likely to be sentenced to death by stoning, due to deeply entrenched discrimination and stereotyping against them."

More than 40,000 people have attended briefing sessions organized by the government in the last four months to understand the provisions under the new Islamic criminal law, the country's religious affairs minister said during a ceremony to mark the laws' implementation.

South Korean Ferry Students Return to School - Robert Alexander

Ansan, South Korea (CNN) -- They left school two weeks ago on a field trip with hundreds of classmates.

They came back Wednesday without the scores of students who died at sea.

About 70 survivors from the sunken South Korean ferry visited a memorial at the Danwon High School in Asnan -- the high school that sent 325 students on a field trip to Jeju Island.

Inside the hallways, it didn't take long for the tears to flow. Many students sobbed as they walked past images of their classmates and hurried back onto waiting buses.

For these students, school will never be the same.

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks

South Korean Prime Minister resigns

S. Korean president apologizes over ferry

Losing hope

The ferry, en route from Incheon to Jeju, sank April 16 on the country's southwest coast.

Any hope for survivors largely hinged on the possibility of air pockets within the sunken ship, which was carrying 425 people.

Hundreds of relatives camped out near a harbor in Jindo, waiting for news. But after officials said there were no more air pockets, the grim reality set in.

"All we are asking for is bring the dead bodies out," a father wailed Tuesday. "We know they are not alive now."

Videos capturing ferry's final moments fuel fresh outrage

Images of ferry captain abandoning ship are shocking

Lots of blame, no answers

As the web of blame widens, even the country's president is apologizing for the disaster that has killed at least 219 passengers. Another 83 people are missing, the South Korean coast guard reported Thursday.

"I am losing sleep as there is no news about saving more lives and because there are many families who don't know whether their loved ones are dead or alive still," President Park Geun-hye said Tuesday.

"I am at a loss for words for an apology that can be enough to console the pain and suffering even for a little while over insufficiency in efforts made to prevent the accident and also in the initial response to the accident," she added.

First ship on scene saw no evacuation

Confusion, anger after ferry disaster

"We'll fix the problems and change our practices so we'll have safer nation and won't let them die in vain," Park said.

South Korean authorities arrested have arrested three people on suspicion of destroying evidence connected to the ferry sinking. Investigators also raided a Coast Guard office in a probe of how officials handled the first emergency call from a passenger.

The director and two other people with the Korea Shipping Association's Incheon office were arrested and accused of destroying evidence related to the probe of Chonghaejin, the company that owns the ferry.

The Korea Shipping Association is a trade group that promotes the interests of the country's shipping industry.

The site raided was the Coast Guard building in Mokpo, which includes the South Jeolla province emergency center -- a facility that provides 119 services, akin to the 911 emergency service in the United States.

Investigators are looking into possible dereliction of duty.

Ferry disaster's toll on South Korea's national psyche

Malaysian Flight Families Asked to Return Home - Robert Alexander

Missing flight MH370: Relatives told to return home

Nurlaila Binti Ngah, wife of chief steward Wan Swaid Wan Ismail: "We just wanted our husbands back"

Continue reading the main story

MH370 mystery

• Deep sea challenge
• Ocean maps problem
• Costs of the search
• Recovery hope boost

Malaysia Airlines has asked relatives of passengers on board flight MH370 to leave the hotel accommodation it is providing and return to their homes.

It is closing the family assistance centres set up after the plane vanished on 8 March with 239 people on board.

The airline promised to keep relatives up to date on the search operation.

Meanwhile, a report by Malaysia's transport ministry has recommended the introduction of real-time tracking of commercial air transport.

The ministry's air accident investigation bureau said there had now been two occasions over the past five years when large passenger planes had gone missing and their last position was not accurately known - MH370 and Air France Flight 447 in 2009.

"This uncertainty resulted in significant difficulty in locating the aircraft in a timely manner," the report noted.

Flight MH370: Audio recording reveals final cockpit communications

There is no requirement from the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO), the UN body that oversees global aviation, for real-time tracking.

Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein also released for the first time the recordings of conversations between MH370's pilots and air traffic controllers. A transcript was published earlier this month.

The plane's cargo manifest and seating plan was also published by Mr Hussein, along with a summary of events from the disappearance of the plane's radar blip until activation of the Rescue Co-ordination Centre.

'Prolonged process'

MH370 disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The search initially took place in the South China Sea and the Malacca Straits, but moved to the southern Indian Ocean after about three weeks when satellite data was reanalysed.

No wreckage from the plane has been found, and an aerial search of the ocean 1,670km (1,040 miles) north-west of the Australian city of Perth ended on Monday.

An unmanned submarine is continuing to search a 314-sq km (121-sq mile) area of the ocean floor where acoustic signals consistent with a plane's flight recorder were detected earlier this month.

The families have been critical of the initial search process and the way they have been kept informed

The Australian head of the search operation has said it could take as long as a year

On Thursday, Malaysia Airlines said in a statement: "Despite such an intensified search operation, probably the largest one in human history, we have to face the hard reality that there is still no trace of the aircraft, and the fate of the missing passengers and crew remains unknown.

"Malaysia Airlines is acutely conscious of, and deeply sympathetic to the continuing unimaginable anguish, distress and hardship suffered by those with loved ones on board the flight."

But it warned that the continuing search and investigation would probably be a "prolonged process" and that it would be "adjusting the mode of services and support" for the relatives.

"Instead of staying in hotels, the families of MH370 are advised to receive information updates on the progress of the search and investigation and other support by Malaysia Airlines within the comfort of their own homes, with the support and care of their families and friends."

All family assistance centres would be closed on 7 May, but the relatives would be given news updates through telephone calls, messages, the internet and face-to-face meetings, Malaysia Airlines said.

Centres will be established in the capitals of Malaysia and China, where most of those on board MH370 were from, to provide "follow-up support and services".

The families have been critical of the initial search process and the way they have been kept informed.

Many have told the BBC that they believe Malaysian officials know more than they are revealing.

Last week, 10 Malaysia Airlines staff were reportedly held against their will for more than 10 hours at a hotel in Beijing by angry relatives.

Malaysia Airlines also said it would soon make "advanced compensation payments" to their nominated next-of-kin, "in order to meet their immediate economic needs". The payments would not affect their rights to claim further compensation at a later stage, it added.

China Station Attack - Robert Alexander

Deadly China blast at Xinjiang railway station

Security was tight outside the station following the explosion

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

• Who are the Uighurs?
• Making sense of Xinjiang unrest
• China kills Xinjiang 'attackers'

A bomb and knife attack at a railway station in China's western Xinjiang region has killed three and injured 79 others, officials and state media say.

The attackers used explosives and knives at Urumqi's south railway station on Wednesday, officials said.

The local government described it as a "violent terrorist attack" but said the situation was now under control.

China's President Xi Jinping, who has just visited the region, has promised to step up "anti-terrorism" efforts.

President Xi urged "'decisive actions' against violent terrorist attacks" following the incident, Xinhua news agency said.

Verifying reports from the region is difficult because the flow of information out of Xinjiang is tightly controlled.

Xinjiang has seen a series of violent attacks in the past year. Beijing blames the violence on separatists from the mainly Muslim Uighur minority.

Dozens were injured in the fatal blast that took place as a train from Chengdu arrived

'Debris and suitcases'

"At around 19:10 on 30 April, an explosion happened at the passenger exit of Urumqi South Station when Train K453 from Chengdu to Urumqi arrived at the station, causing casualties," Xinjiang's local government news portal said.

"According to initial police investigations... the attackers used knives to stab people at the station exit, and detonated explosives at the same time," it said, adding that all the injured were receiving medical treatment.

Witnesses told Xinhua news agency that the explosion appeared to be centred around luggage left on the ground between a station exit and a bus stop.

Photos on social media, which could not be independently verified, appeared to show suitcases and debris strewn across a street after the blast.

The explosion took place near a passenger exit, officials said

During his visit to Xinjiang, Xi Jinping vowed a "strike first" approach to security

However, several microblog posts and photos related to the explosion appeared to have been quickly deleted from Sina Weibo, China's largest microblog platform.

The station was closed after the incident and services suspended but it has since been reopened.

Luo Fuyong, a spokesman for the regional government, told Reuters news agency the situation was "well under control".

"The wounded are receiving medical attention," he said.

The government was assessing casualties and the cause of the explosion, Mr Luo added.

The station was scheduled to launch three new intercity railway lines linking Urumqi with three other cities in Xinjiang on Thursday, Xinhua said.

The blast also came as Xi Jinping completed a visit to Xinjiang - the first since he became president in 2012.

Continue reading the main story

Uighurs and Xinjiang

• Uighurs are ethnically Turkic Muslims
• They make up about 45% of the region's population; 40% are Han Chinese
• China re-established control in 1949 after crushing short-lived state of East Turkestan
• Since then, there has been large-scale immigration of Han Chinese
• Uighurs fear erosion of traditional culture

• Q&A: China and the Uighurs

During the visit, Xinhua news agency said Mr Xi had vowed to deploy a "strike-first approach against terrorists in the region", and said the province's long-term stability was "vital to the whole country's reform, development and stability".

Xinjiang has witnessed serious ethnic tensions in recent years, the BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing reports.

The region's Uighur Muslim minority, who number around nine million, have long complained of repression under Chinese rule - an accusation Beijing denies, our correspondent adds.

In March, Chinese officials blamed separatists from the Xinjiang region for a mass knife attack in Kunming, south-west China, which killed 29 and left more than 130 injured.

"We have seen attacks and problems in Urumqi before, but we haven't seen anything on this scale in quite a while," said Raffaello Pantucci, a senior research fellow with the military think tank the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi).

"I think the issue is that the problem [of attacks] in Xinjiang is getting worse," he told the BBC, adding that he believed incidents were becoming more professional and aimed at larger targets.

Thailand to hold fresh election on July 20th

Philippine military clashes with Rebels; 15 fatalities.

Philippine military clashes with rebels leave 15 dead

The US has helped the Philippine military battle the Abu Sayyaf over the years

 

 

Heavy fighting in the southern Philippines has resulted in the deaths of 14 militants and one soldier, military officials say.

The clashes happened at a remote camp of Abu Sayyaf rebels near Patikul town in Sulu province late on Tuesday.
The Abu Sayyaf were using the camp as a training ground and a base for their operations, military officials said.
The Islamic group, which has links to Al-Qaeda, has been weakened over the years with the help of the US.
The Abu Sayyaf is on the US list of terror groups and has earned a reputation for kidnapping for ransom.
The militants are suspected of abducting a Chinese tourist and a Filipina hotel worker from Malaysia's Sabah Island this month.
Officials believe that the militant group only has a few hundred members left.
The rebels were trying to retake their camp in Patikul after soldiers managed to capture it on Monday, reports say.
"They tried to overwhelm our marines to regain their camp but we have back-up forces nearby and close air support," military spokesman Captain Ryan Lacuesta was quoted by AP news agency as saying.
"They resorted to mortar and M203 rifle grenade fire so our wounded mostly were hit by shrapnel."
At least 19 soldiers were also wounded in the clashes, reports say.
The clashes come a few days after US President Barack Obama visited Manila as part of his Asia tour. Before his visit, representatives from both countries signed a 10-year military pact which allows a bigger US military presence in the country.
Rotating US troops in the Philippine south have been helping the Philippine military fight the Abu Sayyaf for more than a decade.
Another rebel group in the Philippine south, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, last month signed a landmark peace deal with the government, bringing an end to one of Asia's longest and deadliest conflicts.