Foreign nations scramble to evacuate citizens as Sudan battles rage

KHARTOUM, Sudan - Foreign countries on Sunday rushed to evacuate their nationals from battle-torn Sudan where deadly fighting raged into a second week between forces loyal to two rival generals.

As gunfire again echoed through Khartoum and fighter jets roared above, foreigners also fled the capital in a long United Nations convoy, while millions of frightened residents hunkered down inside their homes, many running low on water and food.

Across the city of five million, army and paramilitary troops have fought ferocious street battles since April 15, leaving behind charred tanks, gutted buildings and shops that have been looted and torched.

More than 420 people have been killed and thousands wounded, according to UN figures, amid fears of wider turmoil and a humanitarian disaster in one of the world's poorest nations.

US special forces launched a rescue mission early Sunday for around 100 embassy staff and their relatives, swooping in with Chinook helicopters to fly them to a military base in Djibouti.

US President Joe Biden condemned the violence, saying it is "unconscionable and it must stop".

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said UK forces had also evacuated diplomats and their families "amid a significant escalation in violence and threats to embassy staff".

Germany and France meanwhile announced Sunday that they had begun evacuating their nationals and those from other countries.

A French plane carrying around 100 people of multiple nationalities "landed in Djibouti", according to French President Emmanuel Macron, with a second flight of another 100 people expected to leave Sunday evening.

Long convoys of UN vehicles and buses were seen leaving Khartoum heading east to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, 850 kilometres (530 miles) away by road, carrying "citizens from all over the world", according to one Sierra Leonean evacuee.

Taking advantage of a recent brief lull in fighting, residents of Khartoum rushed to organise buses out -- mainly north to Egypt -- sharing drivers' numbers, safe routes, and advice on visa restrictions on social media.

'Living in darkness'

The fighting broke out on April 15 between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Daglo's RSF emerged from the Janjaweed fighters whom former strongman Omar al-Bashir unleashed in the Darfur region, where they were accused of war crimes including genocide.

The military toppled Bashir in April 2019 following mass citizen protests.

The two generals seized power in a 2021 coup, but later fell out in a bitter power struggle, most recently centred on the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.

Multiple truces have been agreed in recent days and ignored.

Khartoum's airport, where the blackened hulls of destroyed aircraft lie on runways, is under the control of the RSF.

At least one jailbreak has taken place in the capital, according to lawyers.

Reports of prisoners also being freed from two other prisons -- including the Kober jail where Bashir has been held -- could not be independently verified.

In Khartoum, the conflict has left terrified civilians sheltering inside their homes, with power largely off amid sweltering heat and the internet out for most.

"We were living in darkness... first we didn't have water and then we didn't have power," Khartoum resident Awad Ahmad Sherif said.

"We ask God for our safety."

'Stop the violence'

Pope Francis on Sunday renewed calls "for the violence to stop as quickly as possible and for dialogue to resume".

Fighting has broken out elsewhere across Sudan, Africa's third biggest nation.

Battles have raged in Darfur, where aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said their medics had been "overwhelmed" by the number of patients with gunshot wounds, many of them children, in the city of El Fasher.

Some hospitals have been shelled and others ransacked, with more than two-thirds of hospitals in Khartoum and neighbouring states "out of service", the doctors' union said.

In the first large evacuation, more than 150 Saudi citizens and nationals from 12 other countries reached Saudi Arabia by sea on Saturday.

Turkey began rescue operations at dawn Sunday via road from the southern city of Wad Madani, but the effort was postponed from one site in Khartoum after explosions near a mosque designated as the assembly area, the embassy said on Twitter.

European countries including Italy, the Netherlands and Greece also said they were planning rescue efforts.

The scramble by foreigners to escape has heightened fears among Sudanese of what will happen when diplomats who could act as potential mediators have gone.

"Pushing for safe passages to evacuate internationals without simultaneously pushing to end the war will be terrible", said researcher Hamid Khalafallah.

"International actors will have less impact once they're out of country," he said, adding in a message to foreign nations: "Do all you can to leave safely, but don't leave the Sudanese people behind unprotected."

Agence France-Presse

NBA: Grizzlies star Morant accused of punching teen, agent says incident 'self-defense'

Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant was accused in police reports last year of punching a 17-year-old, US media reported Wednesday, but his agent saying the rising NBA star acted in self-defense.

No criminal charges were filed against Morant in the incident, which took place during a pickup basketball game at Morant's Tennessee house in July 2022.

In police records obtained by the Washington Post , the unnamed teenaged boy accused Morant of punching him "12-13 times" during a pickup basketball game at Morant's Tennessee house in July 2022.

In interviews with police, the teen said that after their altercation Morant went into his house and "re-emerged with a gun visible in the waistband of his pants."

Morant told police he "swung first" but felt he was acting in self-defense after the teenager threw a basketball that hit him in the head, later making a comment that Morant found threatening.

Morant's agent Jim Tanner strongly denied in a statement issued Wednesday that the player had a gun.

"The July 26 incident was purely self-defense," Tanner said in a statement that was posted on Tandem Sports and Entertainment's Twitter feed.

"Again, this was fully investigated by law enforcement, they came to the decision not to charge Ja with any crime.

"Any of the dozens of witnesses will confirm Ja acted in self-defense and that he did not have a firearm."

Days before that incident, the head of security at a Memphis mall told police he felt "threatened" by Morant and a group of his associates after an incident in the shopping center's parking lot.

Although a police report was made, no charges were filed.

TMZ reported in January that the teenager and his mother had sued Morant, and Tanner called it "disturbing that unsubstantiated rumors and gossip are being put out by people motivated to tear Ja down and tarnish his reputation for their own financial gain."

Morant, the second overall pick in the 2019 draft and a two-time All-Star, was embroiled in controversy in early February, when the NBA investigated allegations by the Indiana Pacers that Morant's entourage "aggressively confronted" members of their traveling party, possibly pointing a red laser at them.

Agence France-Presse

Four dead, 2 wounded, including suspect, in shooting near Los Angeles

ORANGE, California - Four people were killed, one of them a child, in a shooting on Wednesday at an office building in suburban Los Angeles before the suspect, wounded in an exchange of gunfire with police, was taken into custody, police reported.

The bloodshed in the city of Orange, about 30 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, marked the third deadly mass shooting in the United States in less than a month. Authorities offered no explanation as to a possible motive.

Orange Police Department Lieutenant Jennifer Amat told reporters that police officers arrived on the scene at about 5:30 p.m. local time as shots were being fired and "engaged with the suspect."

She said three adults and one child were found shot dead, and two other people struck by gunfire, including the shooter, were transported to area hospitals.

Audio of Amat's on-scene briefing with reporters was played for Reuters afterward by the video news service OnScene.TV. The police department said in a message posted to its Facebook page that the situation had since been "stabilized" with no further threat to the public.

The shooting erupted in a two-story office building that opens onto an inner courtyard ringed by several businesses. The larger neighborhood consists of homes, apartments and other commercial properties.

Officials had no further details of the incident immediately available.

The shooting came a little more than two weeks after eight people were shot to death by a gunman who went on a rampage at three Atlanta-area day spas on March 16. Ten people were killed on March 22 when a man opened fire at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado. The lone suspects in both those shootings were arrested.

Reacting on Twitter to Wednesday's events in Orange, California Governor Gavin Newsom called the latest bloodshed "horrifying and heartbreaking." 

-reuters-

US Capitol police officer dies of injuries in riot by Trump supporters

US Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick has died of injuries suffered during a riot led by supporters of President Donald Trump, the force said in a statement late on Thursday.

Wednesday's breach of the building was a stunning assault on American democracy at a time when Congress was certifying the victory of President-elect Joe Biden.

"Officer Sicknick was responding to the riots...and was injured while physically engaging with protesters," police said in a statement.

He succumbed on Thursday after being taken to hospital following his collapse upon returning to his divisional office, they added.

Metropolitan homicide officials will investigate the death of Sicknick, who joined the US Capitol Police in 2008, along with the USCP and its federal partners, police said.

Trump condemned the violence, saying rioters had defiled the seat of American democracy and must be held accountable. Critics and some world leaders have said he is to blame for the attack by his supporters on the US capitol. He had been claiming election fraud without proof. 

Among the four more killed were a woman demonstrator shot by authorities.

-reuters-

Iraq PM says will resign as bloody protests cost over 400 lives

BAGHDAD - Iraq's embattled premier announced Friday he will resign in keeping with the wishes of the country's top Shiite cleric, after nearly two months of anti-government protests that have cost more than 400 lives.

Adel Abdel Mahdi's written statement was greeted with cheers and blaring music across Baghdad's iconic Tahrir (Liberation) Square, where crowds have amassed since early October against a ruling class deemed corrupt and inefficient.

"I will submit to the esteemed parliament a formal letter requesting my resignation from the premiership," Abdel Mahdi wrote, just hours after Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani called in his weekly sermon on parliament to replace the cabinet.

The sermon set off an avalanche of statements from political figures in support of a no-confidence vote on the government, before the prime minister's announcement. 

Celebrations broke out in Tahrir, where young protesters dropped the stones they were preparing to throw at riot police and began dancing, an AFP photographer said.

"It's our first victory, and we're hoping for many more," shouted one demonstrator as the three-wheeled tuk-tuk vehicles used to ferry casualties pumped patriotic music into the square. 

"It's also a victory for the martyrs who fell," he said.

The grassroots movement is the largest Iraq has seen in decades but also the deadliest, with more than 400 people dead and 15,000 wounded in the capital and Shiite-majority south, according to an AFP tally.

For weeks, Sistani had called for restraint in dealing with demonstrators and urged political parties to get "serious" about reform, but he ramped up demands on Friday.

"The parliament, from which this current government is drawn, is asked to reconsider its choice in this regard," he said in Friday's sermon delivered by a representative.

Within minutes, MP and former premier Haider al-Abadi called on lawmakers to convene Saturday for a "special session for a vote of no-confidence and to form a new independent government".

And the powerful Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary network, which had backed the government, also appeared to change course. 

Its parliamentary bloc, Fatah, called for "the necessary changes in the interests of Iraq". 

Bloodshed resumes

The sudden turnaround came after one of the bloodiest days of protests yet, with 44 demonstrators killed and nearly 1,000 wounded on Thursday in Baghdad and across the south.

The bloodshed resumed on Friday, with two protesters shot dead in the flashpoint city of Nasiriyah and another killed in the shrine city of Najaf.

"The increasing numbers of deaths and injuries cannot be tolerated," said the UN's top official in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.

The majority of Thursday's dead fell in Nasiriyah, which counted 26 dead, including two who died Friday from injuries suffered the previous day.

In renewed rallies Friday in Nasiriyah, demonstrators encircled a police station and set ablaze five police cars.

And in Najaf, a massive funeral procession snaked through the streets carrying coffins of some of the 16 people killed there the previous day.

Clashes erupted there between protesters and armed men dressed in civilian clothes, with volleys of gunfire heard outside political party offices, according to witnesses. 

Demonstrators felt emboldened by Sistani's sermon, which was "different than the previous ones", said Ali al-Sunbuli, an activist in Najaf.

The sermon began with a prayer for the protesters who died and then addressed parliament directly, not the cabinet or political parties.

"It's a sign that he doesn't recognise their legitimacy," said Sunbuli.

In Diwaniyah, another hotspot, protester Ahmad al-Badr said that Sistani's speech "was a big push for us". 

Turning tides

The unrest in Iraq's south was unleashed after protesters stormed the Iranian consulate in Najaf late Wednesday, accusing the neighbouring country of propping up Iraq's government.

Tehran demanded Iraq take decisive action against the protesters, saying it was "disgusted" by developments.

In response, Abdel Mahdi ordered military chiefs to deploy in several provinces to "impose security and restore order" -- but chaos reigned instead.

Men in civilian clothes opened fire at demonstrators and tribal fighters deployed in the streets in their defence.

As the death toll climbed late Thursday, the premier sacked the commander he had dispatched to Nasiriyah and the provincial governor based in the city resigned.

Police officers speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP they had received orders Thursday to "finish off" the rallies. 

Baghdad and the south have been rocked by the most widespread street unrest since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. 

Protesters are seeking an overhaul of the ruling elite, accused of corruption and embezzling state funds in a country scarred by decades of conflict and where infrastructure is failing.

Iraq is OPEC's second-largest crude producer but one in five Iraqis lives in poverty and youth unemployment stands at 25 percent, according to the World Bank. 

Demonstrators have also called out Iraq's large eastern neighbour Iran, accusing it of political, economic and military overreach. 

Top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani last month convinced political factions to back the government, including firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr, who had called on the premier to resign.

But as the tide appeared to turn again, Sadr resurfaced Thursday, saying it would "be the beginning of the end for Iraq" if the government did not step down.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Leaderless and livid: The youngsters on Hong Kong front lines

Young Hong Kongers who marshaled the fight against a police force that was armed with tear gas and rubber bullets have spoken of how they were pushed into embracing more confrontational tactics by the failure of years of peaceful protests.

In a series of interviews with AFP, the young men and women -- most of them university students on leafy campuses -- said they had become disillusioned with marches and civil disobedience failing to sway the city's largely unelected pro-Beijing leadership.

And with key leaders of earlier pro-democracy movements now languishing in jail, they have switched to small, leaderless cells in a bid to evade capture.

Hong Kong witnessed unprecedented scenes on Wednesday as youngsters clashed with riot police outside parliament to stop lawmakers debating a hugely unpopular bill that would allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland.

One of those on the front lines, 18-year-old student Sharon, said the moment she felt peaceful rallies no longer worked came three days earlier.

That day a record crowd -- organizers say more than a million -- marched peacefully through the streets of the international finance hub calling for the bill to be scrapped.

But shortly before midnight, Sharon's phone lit up with a statement from the government saying the bill would go ahead.

"I suddenly had this realization that even though one million people marched, there wouldn't be an impact," she said, asking -- like the other students -- not to be identified.

"This time people realized peaceful protests don't really work," she added.

For people like Sharon, it was time to switch tactics in a city where democracy activists have held huge annual marches since 2003 but made limited progress.

GOGGLES AND SANITART PADS



Andrew, 22, said he and a group of seven friends had gone to Wednesday's protests prepared for police tear gas and pepper spray.

They brought equipment like goggles, gloves and cling film -- to protect their arms from tear gas burns -- and sanitary pads to staunch any bleeding.

But he described their actions as organic and spontaneous, with small groups of trusted friends acting together within a larger mass, without taking directions from any centralized leadership.

"No one is going to announce that I must use force or stand on the front line," he said.

He said the decision to charge police and try to reach parliament happened without anyone making any order.

"It might not be up to you to choose," he explained as he described the crowd dynamic that day.

"It could be because of the passion of the crowds or what police officers have done (to make you very angry)."

Those tactics contrast with 2014 when similar crowds of young people took over key intersections in Hong Kong for more than two months calling for the right to elect the city's leader.

Apart from occasional clashes with police, the so-called "Umbrella Movement" protests were peaceful and orderly and had key leaders.

But it failed to win any concessions and many of the movement's figures -- like student leader Joshua Wong and academic Benny Tai -- are currently in jail.

"We choose this option because what we've done so far isn't enough to make the government feel the people's anger and discontent towards this bill. That's why we are choosing to charge," Andrew said, admitting it would be easier to coordinate if they had leaders but that few would want to take that risk.

POLICE ON DEFENSE


Police have since labelled the protest a riot with a senior superintendent usually involved in organised crime investigations calling those involved "organised, premeditated, prepared, radical and violent people".

The city's police chief has defended his officers, saying potentially deadly projectiles like bricks and metal poles were being thrown.

He has received the backing of the city's pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam, who also called demonstrators rioters and refused to apologize for the clearances, even as she suspended the bill on Saturday saying she had misjudged the public mood.

In recent days police and Lam have faced a growing backlash over accusations officers used excessive force against the crowds.

Rights activists and influential legal groups have called the response disproportionate, videos of the most violent police beatings have gone viral and parents have rallied holding signs reading: "Don't shoot our kids."

Chris, a protester who went into battle on Wednesday with the phone number of a lawyer written on his stomach in case of arrest, said he believes there has been a sea-change among Hong Kong's often conservative public.

"Those who had been a bit squeamish or resistant to more radical acts in Hong Kong society are starting to slowly accept them," he said.

Andrew, who said he was beaten by police batons, agreed.

"People wearing suits and professional types, they would come over to the supply stations set up further back and ask what we needed," he recalled.

He believes peaceful and forceful tactics can co-exist, recalling how Christians held hours-long hymn sessions and security guards in upscale malls helped protesters shelter from the tear gas.

'FEARED PAIN, NOT ARREST'


The possibility of jail and arrest has weighed on the protesters as they study for degrees.

But Leung, a student who said she'd been to all previous protests in recent years, said she felt her generation had "nothing to lose" at this point.

"I'd cast my worries aside. At the scene, I feared pain more than arrest," she recalled.

For Andrew, his fear of arrest or a hit to future job prospects is eclipsed by what the extradition law would mean for Hong Kongers.

"Even if I chose comfort and became a banker, when this law is passed, I'd still be under threat," he said. "If you think about it realistically, you're just waiting to be attacked."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Hong Kong braces for huge rally after leader climbdown

Hong Kong braces for another mass rally Sunday as public anger seethes following unprecedented clashes between protesters and police over an extradition law, despite a climbdown by the city's embattled leader in suspending the bill.

Organizers are hoping for another mammoth turnout as they vowed to keep pressure on chief executive Carrie Lam, who suspended work on the hugely divisive bill Saturday after days of mounting pressure, saying she had misjudged the public mood.

Critics fear the Beijing-backed law will tangle people up in China's notoriously opaque and politicized courts and damage the city's reputation as a safe business hub.

The international finance hub was rocked by the worst political violence since its 1997 handover to China on Wednesday as tens of thousands of protesters were dispersed by riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

Lam stopped short of committing to permanently scrapping the proposal and the concession was swiftly rejected by protest leaders, who called on her to resign, permanently shelve the bill and apologize for police tactics.

Jimmy Sham, from the main protest group the Civil Human Rights Front, likened Lam's offer to a "knife" that had been plunged into the city. 

"It's almost reached our heart. Now the government said they won't push it, but they also refuse to pull it out," he told reporters.

'KEEP THE HEAT ON' 

On Sunday afternoon, protesters are set to march from a park on the main island to the city's parliament -- a repeat of a massive rally a week earlier in which organizers said more than a million people turned out.

Lam's decision to ignore that record-breaking turnout and press ahead with tabling the bill for debate in the legislature on Wednesday was the spark that lit the clashes which brought key parts of the city to a standstill.

The protest movement has morphed in recent days from one specifically aimed at scrapping the extradition bill, to a wider movement of anger at Lam and Beijing over years of sliding freedoms.

"The pro-democracy group will not stop at this point, they want to build on the momentum against Carrie Lam," political analyst Willy Lam told AFP. "They will keep the heat on and ride the momentum." 

Police said they had no choice but to use force to meet violent protesters who besieged their lines outside the city's parliament on Wednesday.

But critics -- including legal and rights groups -- say officers used the actions of a tiny group of violent protesters as an excuse to unleash a sweeping crackdown on the predominantly young, peaceful protesters.

Anger has also been fanned by Lam and senior officers calling the street demonstrators "rioters".

Protest leaders have called for police to drop charges against anyone arrested for rioting and other offences linked to Wednesday's clashes.

Lam has argued that Hong Kong needs to reach an extradition agreement with the mainland, and says safeguards were in place to ensure dissidents or political cases would not be accepted.

Opposition to the bill united an unusually wide cross-section of Hong Kong from influential legal and business bodies, to religious leaders and western nations.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Paris luxury stores looted, burned in 'yellow vest' riots

PARIS -- Rioters looted and torched shops and businesses on the famed Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on Saturday, on the 18th weekend of French "yellow vest" protests, characterized by a sharp increase in violence after weeks of dwindling turnout.

President Emmanuel Macron cut short a skiing trip in the Pyrenees to return to Paris for a crisis meeting, as hooded protesters went on the rampage in Paris, leaving a trail of destruction in the touristic heart of the city.

He vowed to take "strong decisions" to prevent further violence, following the emergency talks held at the interior ministry late Saturday.

"There are people today who try by all means... to damage the Republic by breaking, by destroying things at the risk of killing someone," Macron said.

"All those who were there were complicit in" the havoc spread across the Champs-Elysees, he added.

The police appeared overrun as protesters swarmed the Champs-Elysees, vandalizing and later setting fire to Fouquet's brasserie, a favorite hangout of the rich and famous for the past century -- as well as luxury handbag store Longchamp, a bank, another restaurant and several news stands.

The rioters also looted several clothing stores and set fire to barricades in scenes reminiscent of the worst yellow-vest riots in Paris in December.

"Like the vast majority of French people, I feel very angry today," tweeted French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who visited the scene. 

"Today's actions are not the work of protesters, but of looters, arsonists and criminals. No cause justifies this violence," he added.

In a statement, the national police denounced the "mindless violence, cowardly attacks" and stressed their determination to guarantee public order against "provocateurs and vandals".

BANK BLAZE 

Saturday's turnout was seen a test of the ongoing strength of the movement, which began in November over fuel tax hikes and quickly ballooned into a rebellion against Macron's policies, seen by the protesters as geared towards the rich.

In recent weeks, the protests have dwindled in size. But the interior ministry estimated the turnout in Paris Saturday at 10,000, out of around 32,300 nationwide.

That is a fraction of the 282,000 people they said took part in the inaugural demonstrations across France on November 17, but more than the previous weekend. 

Saturday's protests were markedly more violent than in recent weeks. Police said close to 240 people were arrested, while prosecutors said more than 100 had been taken into custody.

The bank set alight was on the ground floor of an apartment building, and fire firefighters had to quickly evacuate the residents, including a 9-month-old baby.

Eleven people suffered minor injuries in the bank blaze, the fire service told AFP.

The violence left 17 members of the police injured, and 42 protesters, said police.

'ULTRA-VIOLENT' MINORITY

The rally coincides with the end of the public debates called by the president to try take the heat out of the protests and give voters a forum to propose policy changes.

Around half a million people turned out at town hall-style meetings held around the country over the past two months.

But many "yellow vests" dismissed the consultation exercise as a smoke-screen.

On Saturday, the police used tear gas, stun grenades and water cannon to try repel protesters who gathered at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe war memorial, which was sacked by protesters on December 1.

But for 7 hours they continued to be pelted with paving stones by mostly black-clad demonstrators.

"There are a number of people who have come just to smash things," Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said, estimating that some 1,500 "ultra-violent" activists had infiltrated the crowd.

"We have been too nice, that's why it's violent today. I'm not in favour (of violence) but we are ruled by corrupt people who dare to lecture us," Jean-Francois Bernard, a landscape gardener who was among the protesters, told AFP.

The presidency later announced that Macron was returning home from La Mongie ski resort where he and his wife Brigitte arrived Thursday to spend the weekend.

'WE WANT RESULTS' 

Protesters streamed into the capital by train and car for a rally they called an "ultimatum" to the president. Over 5,000 police were deployed, along with several armored police vehicles.

Macron was caught off guard when grassroots protesters began occupying traffic roundabouts in November over fuel taxes. He has loosened the state's purse strings to the tune of 10 billion euros ($11.2 billion) to try defuse the protests.

But the measures failed to quell the anger of the demonstrators, who accuse the former investment banker of being elitist and favoring the rich.

The Paris protest was one of several in the capital on Saturday, where tens of thousands of climate campaigners also held a demonstration to demand that the French government uphold its commitments on reducing emissions.

Yellow vest protests also took place several other French cities. At Bordeaux, in the southwest, police clashed with protesters and a bank was damaged.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Bangladesh shuts down mobile internet to tackle teen protests

DHAKA - Bangladesh authorities have shut down mobile internet across swathes of the country, officials and local media said Sunday, as the authorities try to quell massive student protests that have spiraled into violence.

For the last week students have brought parts of the capital Dhaka to a standstill with a protest against poor road safety after 2 teenagers were killed by a speeding bus.

On Saturday the protests took a violent turn in Dhaka's Jigatala neighborhood with more than 100 people injured. 

Witnesses said police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators and that alleged pro-government activists attacked youngsters, including some of those rushing to nearby hospitals for treatment.

The country's highest circulated newspaper Prothom Alo said 3G and 4G internet services have been shut down for 24 hours since late Saturday, shortly after the violence broke out.

Social media has been filled with comments from Bangladeshis unable to access the internet via their phones, although wireless and wired networks appear to be unhindered.

Jahirul Haq, chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC), told AFP they received a "decision" from the government. But he did not clarify what was the government order was. He said he would comment further on the situation later Sunday.

A senior telecoms official who asked for anonymity said: "The BTRC has slowed down the internet at the order of the government."

The move may be an attempt to try and limit the ability of students to mobilize or spread growing online outrage over how the government has handled the protests, hours after police and unidentified men wielding sticks and stones clashed with students. 

Images and photos of the attacks on students allegedly by the ruling party activists have flooded the social media, prompting renewed outrage.

Police denied they fired rubber bullets or tear gas at the protesters. However hospital staff said dozens of people had been injured, some seriously, sporting injuries consistent with rubber bullets.

The ruling Awami League party has also denied allegations its cadres beat students up. 

Bangladesh's transport sector is widely seen as corrupt, unregulated and dangerous, and as news of the teenagers' deaths spread rapidly on social media they became a catalyst for an outpouring of anger against the government.

The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009, but in recent months it has been shaken by mass protests demanding an end to a decades-old system of discriminatory civil service recruitment. 

Several powerful ministers have pleaded with students to return to their classes, amid worries the unprecedented teen outrage could turn into widespread anti-government protests ahead of general elections due later this year.

But their pleas have had little effect.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

CIA chief denies agency role in Iran unrest, predicts new violence

WASHINGTON - The head of the CIA on Sunday denied his agency had any role in fomenting the recent anti-government protests in Iran but predicted the violent unrest "is not behind us."

Mike Pompeo, named a year ago by President Donald Trump to head the intelligence agency, told Fox News Sunday that economic conditions in Iran "are not good."

"That's what caused the people to take to the streets," he said. He blamed what he called Tehran's "backward-looking" regime for turning a deaf ear to the voices of the people.

Asked about a claim by Iran's prosecutor general, Mohammad Javad Montazeri, that a CIA official had coordinated with Israel and Saudi Arabia -- Iran's regional rivals -- to work with exiled Iranian groups to stir dissent in Iran, Pompeo replied simply: "It's false."

"This was the Iranian people -- started by them, created by them, continued by them, demanding a better set of living conditions and a break from the theocratic regime."

LOOMING DEADLINES 

Trump has repeatedly tweeted his support for Iranian protesters while castigating the Tehran regime, seizing on the recent unrest to again slam the multiparty nuclear deal with Iran as deeply flawed.

Trump faces deadlines around mid-month on whether to renew temporary waivers or restore US sanctions on Iran. In October, Trump refused to certify that Iran was respecting its commitments under the 2015 nuclear accord, but did not reimpose sanctions or abandon the deal itself.

The administration has not revealed its intentions, but the Iran unrest is seen as a possible pretext for blowing up the nuclear accord.

The US Congress has been working on legislation aimed at tightening terms of the agreement in ways that might satisfy Trump's demands, and Pompeo expressed careful optimism that it might succeed.

"They could do something," he said. "They could take some of the weaknesses from the agreement... extend deadlines (and) snap back sanctions into place where they could really happen."

But Bob Corker, head of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, said last week that while talks on Iran were continuing with the White House and its European partners, no new bill was imminent.

Any agreement, Corker said, would take several more weeks to work out.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Callamard: Neo-liberalism a factor in EJKs

DUBLIN - A United Nations special rapporteur on Wednesday blamed neo-liberalism for unleashing violence worldwide, calling "the liberal vision for development" a killer in the community.

Agnes Callamard, UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions, said a one-size-fits-all model of economic development exacerbated inequality and was a factor in the rising tide of arbitrary executions and extrajudicial murders.

"The restructuring of economies and the liberal vision for development is trickling down to every community and is a killer, in many ways," Callamard told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview in Dublin.

Yet she said it did not garner the same attention as political populism and brutal military-style policing, which make huge headlines for instigating violence worldwide.

"Privatisation of certain public services and the ownership of land and water, and more generally the transformation of the economy toward the digital and information economy... all of those factors are creating much instability, and much conflict, including over access to resources."

"In turn, those conflicts translate into violence, and in some cases, extra judicial killing," she added.

Proponents of "neo-liberalism" - under which governments take a back seat and let the private sector lead economic and social development - claim it has been responsible for much of the reduction in global poverty in the last 40 years.

But Callamard said a belief that natural resources must be privatised are "killing so many people" and must be challenged.

"We certainly need to start countering the liberal economic discourse because it's killing at this moment, in the way it's being implemented at national level."

TO THE DEATH

Speaking at the Platform on Human Rights Defenders, a conference for activists, Callamard said she was struck by how many people were attacked for protecting their land and water.

Last year was the deadliest on record for such activists, according to watchdog groups.

More than 1,000 people in 25 countries were murdered, harassed, imprisoned or intimidated while fighting for their community's rights, according to Front Line Defenders.

Another group, Global Witness, said nearly four people were murdered each week last year while defending their homes from mining, dams and agricultural projects.

This year is on track to be worse, according to activists.

Global Witness said the rising violence was driven by an intensifying fight for land and natural resources, with some mining, logging, hydro-electric and agricultural companies disregarding the environment and the rights of people.

Callamard was joined on a discussion panel by human rights defenders for Philippines, South Africa and Colombia, who each pointed to resources as a root cause of violent conflicts between local communities and state-backed big business.

MANY SHAPES OF GROWTH

In August, Callamard clashed with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte after imploring him to end his war on drugs, which has resulted in more than 3,900 killings by police.

But speaking in Dublin, she said she was equally concerned by violence outside the urban hotspots, where rural Filipinos opposing mining developments have met bloody reprisals.

Callamard called on charities and leaders at the conference to amplify the voices of indigenous people, whose own models of development can be ignored or dismissed as "anti-development".

"We need to understand that economic growth can take many shapes," said Callamard, lauding activists' different path.

Callamard urged support for legal challenges to unrestrained development, giving local communities new powers.

She highlighted recent decisions by courts in New Zealand and India to give rivers the same legal rights as human beings, because they were heavily threatened by human activity.

"These kind of decisions, they are groundbreaking, but they also challenge us in the way we think about nature," she said.

LIMITS OF LIBERALISM

Callamard joins a host of institutions that have called into question the limits of the liberal economic model, which has for 40 years dominated thought on economic development.

Last month, the UN trade and development agency UNCTAD said the world must ditch austerity and economic neo-liberalism and undertake a global “New Deal” to rebalance the global economy and achieve prosperity for all.

A paper in May of 2016 by senior economists at the IMF, which for 40 years has driven economic liberalization of global economies, said some neo-liberal policies have increased inequality and are now jeopardizing durable global growth.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

6 dead in Rio drug gang violence

RIO DE JANEIIRO - Shoot-outs between drug gangs left at least six people dead over the weekend in two Rio de Janeiro favelas, the latest in a flare-up of violence in recent months.

Through much of Sunday morning, heavy exchanges of gunfire terrorized residents of Rocinha, Rio's biggest favela with 75,000 inhabitants.

Nearly a quarter the city's 6.45 million population live in favelas, the term Brazilians give for the poor, densely populated neighborhoods clustered on the city's steep hillsides.

"Clashes between traffickers in Rocinha. Avoid the area," Rio's military police warned on the force's Twitter account.

Local security services told AFP that one person was killed in Rocinha on Sunday, the day after five other people were killed in neighborhoods north of the city.

Witness accounts on social media indicated more than one person may have been killed in Rocinha, and several videos showed armed men running through the neighborhood's maze of alleys.

Several helicopters overflew the area and entrances to a metro station at Sao Conrado -- a wealthy neighborhood in southern Rio below Rocinha -- was closed for several hours.

Police also were attacked in the early morning by a group of heavily armed men near the favela, according to the authorities.

A police source told AFP that they suspect the violence was due to internal divisions in the gang that controls drug trafficking in Rocinha.

According to local media, members of the same gang were behind clashes that left five dead overnight Friday to Saturday in Morro do Juramento, a favela north of Rio.

Firefighters confirmed that they recovered five bodies from that area, while the local press put the toll there at seven dead.

Rio has seen deadly violence spiked during the first half of the year to its highest level since 2009, with 3,457 homicides, a 15 percent jump from the same period last year, according to the Public Security Institute.

The growing sense of insecurity has been aggravated by the state of Rio's dismal financial situation. On the verge of bankruptcy, it is a month behind in payments of wages and salaries to its workers, including the police.

The government has turned to the army to combat the upsurge in violence, deploying nearly 10,000 troops at the end of July.

They have already taken part in two huge operations against the armed gangs in the city's favelas.

The newspaper O Globo, however, reported that the military has not taken part in the last two operations led by local authorities and the troops may soon be pulled out of the city.

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Obama breaks Twitter record with Charlottesville tweet

A tweet by former US President Barack Obama soon after the outbreak of violence at a nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday garnered 2.8 million "likes" to become the most liked Twitter message ever by Tuesday, the social media network said.

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion...," Obama tweeted, quoting South Africa's anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela.

At the time this story was posted early Friday morning (Manila time), the number of "likes" reached 4.2 million.

He followed that record-breaking tweet with the following messages:

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Attack on Venezuela army base repelled, leaving 2 dead: Maduro

VALENCIA, Venezuela - Venezuela's military said Sunday it repelled a "terrorist" attack on a base in the city of Valencia, led by an army deserter allegedly linked to "foreign governments."

Two of the attackers were killed and eight were captured, President Nicolas Maduro said on state television, claiming the group of "mercenaries" -- whose total number he put at around 20 -- had ties to Colombia and the United States.

Officials insisted afterward that all was normal across the country.

Still, the incident heightened fears that Venezuela's deepening political and economic crisis could explode into greater violence.

In Valencia, a major northwestern city, military helicopters flew overhead as tactical armored vehicles patrolled the streets in a climate of tension.

Locals said a nighttime curfew had been imposed, as flaming barricades set up in the street by anti-government protesters spewed black smoke.

The armed forces said in a statement "a group of civilian criminals wearing military uniforms and a first lieutenant who had deserted" carried out the attack, during which a number of weapons were stolen.

The lieutenant and several of the attackers were arrested but "an intense search" was on for the others who made off with the arms, the military said.

Maduro said the captured lieutenant was "actively giving information and we have testimony from seven of the civilians."

MADURO 'DICTATORSHIP'

Maduro congratulated the army for its "immediate reaction" in putting down the attack, saying they earned his "admiration."

Venezuela has become increasingly isolated internationally as Maduro has tightened his hold on power through a contested loyalist assembly that started work this week.

The opposition, which controls the legislature, has been sidelined. Its leaders are under threat of arrest after organizing protests, fiercely countered by security forces, that have left 125 people dead in the past four months.

One prominent leader, Leopoldo Lopez, was returned to house arrest after being hauled off to military prison four days ago.

The new Constituent Assembly, packed with Maduro allies including the president's wife and son, has quickly used its supreme powers to clamp down on dissent.

On Saturday, it ordered the dismissal of the attorney general, Luisa Ortega, who had broken ranks with Maduro to become one of his most vociferous critics.

On Sunday it announced -- then suspended -- the creation of a "truth commission" sought by Maduro to probe alleged crimes by the opposition.

The United States accuses Maduro of installing an "authoritarian dictatorship" that has turned Venezuela into an international pariah.

The United States, Colombia, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and Peru have slammed the "illegal" sacking of Ortega.

And Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil have indefinitely suspended Venezuela from the South American trading bloc Mercosur for its "rupture of the democratic order."

LOYAL MILITARY CHIEFS

"Each step by the Constituent Assembly is a step towards the precipice by this government," the leader of the opposition parliament, Julio Borges, told a news conference in Caracas on Sunday.

"The only thing it has left is brute force... The only thing it wants is to cling to power," he said, calling for more protests.

The opposition has repeatedly urged the military to abandon Maduro.

But Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, the head of the armed forces, has said the military's loyalty was unshakable.

After Sunday's attack in Valencia, Padrino tweeted that the assailants "couldn't do anything against" the army.

"They try to assault it with terrorist attacks. They can't," he said.

In a video posted online just before the attack, a man presenting himself as an army captain declared a "legitimate rebellion... to reject the murderous tyranny of Nicolas Maduro."

Speaking with 15 other men dressed in camouflage standing by him, some of them armed, he demanded a transitional government and "free elections."

It was not known if he was the lieutenant referred to in the military statement.

That statement said the officer had deserted three years ago and taken refuge in Miami, in the US state of Florida.

The deputy leader of Maduro's Socialist Party, Diosdado Cabello, tweeted that there was "absolute normality in the other military units in the country."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Gunman targeting white men kills three in Fresno, California

A gunman who went by the nickname Black Jesus killed three white men in downtown Fresno, California, on Tuesday, and fired at another before he was taken into custody while shouting "Allahu Akhbar," police said.

The suspect, 39-year-old Kori Ali Muhammad, was also wanted in connection with the fatal shooting last week of an unarmed security guard at a Motel 6 in Fresno, Police Chief Jerry Dyer told reporters at a press conference.

Dyer said Muhammad fired at least 16 rounds from a large-caliber handgun in less than a minute at four downtown Fresno locations at about 10:45 a.m. local time before he was spotted running through the streets by a police officer.

"Immediately upon the individual seeing the officer he literally dove onto the ground and was taken into custody and as he was taken into custody he yelled out 'Allahu Akhbar,'" Dyer said. The term means "God is great" in Arabic.

"He does not like white people," Dyer said, citing the suspect's statements after being arrested and his Facebook postings. The chief said Muhammad, who is African American, used the nickname Black Jesus.

All four of the men killed on Tuesday were white, as was the security guard and the other man Mohammad shot at but missed.

Dyer said it was too early to rule out terrorism and that his department had contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate, but portrayed the incident as "a random act of violence."

"These individuals who were chosen today did not do anything to deserve what they got," he said. "These were unprovoked attacks by an individual who was intent on carrying out homicides today, and he did that."

Dyer said Muhammad had been identified quickly as the prime suspect in the Motel 6 shooting on April 13 and that police had been urgently seeking him across the Fresno area since then.

Fresno is an agricultural hub in California's central valley, about 170 miles southeast of San Francisco.

Muhammad has a criminal history that includes weapons and drug charges and had spent time in state prison, Dyer said.

County government buildings were placed on lockdown during the shooting spree and residents were urged to shelter in place.

Local television images showed what appeared to be a body covered in a yellow tarp in a street near where police tape marked off several crime scenes.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb and Steve Gorman; Editing by Richard Chang)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Dutch expel Turkish minister as police break up protests

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands - Dutch police used water cannon and horses early Sunday to break up protests outside the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam as the city expelled a Turkish minister, amid an escalating diplomatic row with Ankara.

After several hours of calm demonstrations, police moved in to disperse over 1,000 people gathered close to the consulate, charging the crowd on horseback and using dogs to regain control.

Protesters hit back, throwing rocks at riot police, while hundreds of cars jammed the streets blaring their horns and revving their engines.

Tensions finally tipped over into violence after a day of fast-moving events, triggered when Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he planned to attend a pro-Turkish government rally in Rotterdam.

The Netherlands, which holds general elections on Wednesday, had repeatedly said Cavusoglu was not welcome to campaign for Turkey's April referendum in the country and refused his plane permission to land.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacted angrily accusing the Dutch -- who were once under Nazi occupation -- of being "the vestiges of Nazis."

The Dutch decision to ban Cavusoglu from visiting came after Germany and other European nations also blocked similar campaign events.

"They are the vestiges of the Nazis, they are fascists," Erdogan told an Istanbul rally on Saturday, days after he angrily compared moves to block rallies in Germany to "Nazi practices".

"Ban our foreign minister from flying however much you like, but from now on let's see how your flights will land in Turkey," Erdogan said.

- Minister expelled -

But later, Turkey's Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya appeared at the scene after reportedly travelling by car overland from Germany.

She was stopped just outside the consulate by Dutch police, and after several hours of negotiations escorted back to the German border.

Kaya was "on the way from Rotterdam to Germany," mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb told reporters, adding: "She has been expelled back to the country she came from."

After several hours of negotiations, it had proven "impossible to find a solution," he said, adding Ankara had been repeatedly told she was "not welcome. But nevertheless she decided to travel".

Kaya complained of her treatment, and could be seen in images on Dutch NOS television appearing to argue with Dutch police about the situation.

"We've been here for about four hours. We were not even offered water," she told the NTV television channel.

"I was told to leave the country and return to Germany as soon as possible," she added.

Cavusoglu meanwhile flew to France where he is expected to address a rally Sunday in the eastern city of Metz. A French official said the visit had been cleared by the foreign ministry in Paris.

As the row raged, Turkish foreign ministry sources said the Dutch embassy in Ankara and consulate in Istanbul had both been sealed off for "security reasons".

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Erdogan's criticism was "crazy."

"I understand that they are angry but this is way out of line," he said. "I really think we made the right decision here."

- 'Don't return' -

Cavusoglu, speaking in Istanbul, said the ban was "unacceptable".

"Why are you taking sides in the referendum?" he said, adding: "Is the foreign minister of Turkey a terrorist?"

The Turkish foreign ministry said the Dutch charge d'affaires in Ankara was summoned and told Turkey did not want the Dutch ambassador -- currently on holiday -- to return "for a while".

The Netherlands is home to some 400,000 people of Turkish origin, and Ankara is keen to harness votes of the diaspora in Europe ahead of the April 16 referendum on creating an executive presidency.

The Turkish government argues the changes would ensure stability and create more efficient governance, but opponents say it would lead to one-man rule and further inflame tensions in its diverse society.

The latest row came after NATO allies Turkey and Germany sparred over the cancellation of a series of referendum campaign events there.

Germany is home to 1.4 million people eligible to vote in Turkey -- the fourth-largest electoral base after Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

Although Berlin insisted the cancellations by local authorities were for logistical reasons, Turkish officials repeatedly hit back.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

One dead, two injured in Germany car attack

FRANKFRURT AM MAIN - One person was killed and two injured Saturday when a man rammed a car into pedestrians in the southern German city of Heidelberg, said police, adding that it did not appear to be a terror attack.

After the crash, the driver, a 35-year-old German man, fled on foot armed with a knife on a busy city center street but was shot and wounded by police.

Police said a 73-three-year-old German man who suffered serious injuries died later in hospital.

A statement said a 32-year-old Austrian and a Bosnian woman aged 29 were injured by the car.

"At the current stage of the investigation there is nothing to suggest that it was a terrorist" act, the police said.

Officers had tracked down the driver with help from witnesses and opened fire on the suspect who was "seriously wounded", police said.

They said there was "no additional information on the state of health" of the driver.

German daily Bild reported that the suspect was suffering from psychiatric troubles, but authorities have made no comment on that claim.

The police cordoned off the area and a helicopter hovered overhead on Saturday evening.

Germany has been on high alert since a Tunisian allegedly rammed a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin in December, killing 12 people, before being shot dead days later by police in Italy.

The Berlin carnage evoked memories of the July truck assault in the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian Islamic State group-sympathizer.

According to German security services, there are about 10,000 radical Islamists in the country of whom 1,600 have suspected links to terror groups.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Five arrests, two injured at neo-Nazi rally in Sweden

STOCKHOLM - Five people were arrested and two were injured in Stockholm on Saturday in clashes between police and anti-fascists at a rally by Swedish neo-Nazis, police said.

An AFP photographer said thousands of anti-fascists gathered in central Stockholm to protest against a rally being held by the Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR).

Police placed a protective cordon around the NMR rally, which numbered hundreds of people, the photographer said.

Police said they made five arrests among anti-fascists who tried to break through police lines before the demonstration eventually dispersed in the afternoon.

Spokesman Lars Bystroem told TT news agency that a policeman was hit by a demonstrator, and a second individual was injured in circumstances that were unclear.

The NMR, set up in 1997, promotes an openly racist and anti-Semitic doctrine, and press commentators had questioned the wisdom of authorizing Saturday's rally, given the likelihood of violence.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Teen kills father, opens fire on schoolyard in South Carolina

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- A 14-year-old South Carolina boy shot and killed his father then drove to an elementary school where he opened fire with a handgun, wounding two children and a teacher before being tackled by a firefighter who held him for police, authorities said on Wednesday.

The suspect, whose name has not been released, shot dead his 47-year-old father, Jeffrey DeWitt Osborne, then drove a pickup truck about 2 miles (3.2 km) to Townville Elementary school where he crashed into a fence surrounding the playground, authorities said.

After the teenager began shooting, volunteer firefighter Jamie Brock pinned him down while staff led children to safety inside the building. Police arrived within 7 minutes of a teacher calling 911 to take the suspect into custody at the school in Anderson County, located near the Georgia state line about 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Atlanta. The shooter never entered the building.

U.S. schools have taken added security precautions since 2012 when a gunman shot dead 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Brock, a 30-year veteran of the Townville Volunteer Fire Department, was hailed on social media as a hero and credited with preventing another school massacre.

"(He) was there in the hot scene and risked his life to mitigate this incident," Anderson County emergency services director Taylor Jones said. "He just used enough force to take him to the ground."

The shooting left a 6-year-old boy in critical condition and undergoing surgery, Scott Stoller, Anderson County's director of emergency services, told the Anderson Independent Mail.

The other boy and a female teacher were in good condition, said Juana Slade, spokeswoman for AnMed Health Medical Center. Both boys were 6 years old, the Independent Mail reported.

One male student was shot in the leg and the other boy was shot in the foot. The female teacher was shot in the shoulder, authorities said. The shooter and victims were white.

Anderson County Sheriff’s Office Captain Garland Major did not know the relationship between the shooter and those injured at the school. The suspect was home schooled, authorities said.

Immediately after the shooting, armed officers guarded students as they were evacuated from the school and taken by bus to a nearby church, local media said. Television images showed police swarming the school, with some officers on the roof while others moved around the building.

Jamie Meredith, whose daughter is in kindergarten at Townville Elementary, told WYFF news that she panicked after getting word of the shooting. Her daughter is OK but described a scene of scared and crying children.

“I’m just scared,” Meredith said through tears as she was interviewed by WYFF. “I don’t even want her to go to school now.”

About 280 students attend the school.

The incident was the latest in a series of shootings at U.S. schools that have fueled the debate about access to guns in America.

Earlier this month, a 14-year-old girl shot and wounded a fellow student at a rural Texas high school and then died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is due to meet with law enforcement officials in the area this evening, Jones said.

(Additional reporting by Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Curtis Skinner in San Francisco and Laila Kearney in New York; Writing by Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Andrew Hay)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Singaporean man charged after threatening to 'open fire' on LGBTs

SINGAPORE, Singapore - A man whose Facebook comment calling for violence against the local LGBT community went viral after a shooting at a popular gay club in Florida was charged in Singapore on Thursday.

Bryan Lim, 36, faces up to five years in jail and a fine if convicted of inciting violence through the Internet.

Lim had posted the comment on a Facebook group page set up to oppose Pink Dot, an annual gay rights rally in Singapore.

"Give me permission to open fire. I would like to see these £@€$^*s die for their causes," Lim wrote.

In the post, he identified himself as a father and a Singaporean citizen who had undergone mandatory military service and had sworn "to protect my nation".

The comment was posted on June 4 but only went viral after the June 12 shooting in Orlando, Florida which killed 49 people. Several Internet users made police reports against him.

Lim later apologised, claiming that his comment had been "taken out of context".

"I did not mean physical bullets nor physical death," he wrote. "I mean open fire in debate and remove them from Singapore domestic matters."

Lim's computers and phone have been seized by police and he will next appear in court in August.

Singapore, an ethnically diverse city-state, has tough laws against violence and hate speech.

On Tuesday, a website owner was jailed for eight months for publishing fabricated articles that stirred hatred against foreigners in Singapore.

But Singapore's leaders have had to maintain a difficult balance between increasingly vocal conservatives and gay rights supporters.

Earlier in June, the government warned foreign firms against sponsoring Pink Dot, while a local staging of Les Miserables was forced to cut a scene involving a kiss between two male actors because of public complaints.

Sex between men remains illegal in Singapore, a holdover from colonial rule that is not strictly enforced.

In an interview with journalists last year, Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said the country was not ready to legalise same-sex marriage, but added that the local gay community did not face harassment or discrimination.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com