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Nov 20, 2024 - World

For world leaders and diplomats at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, US President-elect Donald Trump was the man who cannot be named.Almost nobody would mention the next occupant of the White House directly, even as his impending return to power hung over the meeting.Leaders would instead talk in coded terms about the "next administration," "turbulence" and "change."But it was clear what they meant, even as they sought to avoid falling out with the man who will be at work in the Oval Office from January 20.French President Emmanuel Macron, who expended considerable effort trying to win over Trump during the American's first term, made veiled comments at the summit about tariffs and climate."Any fragmentation or fracturing of the international order by tariff policies which are carried out by the strongest simply leads all others not to respect it," Macron said -- without referring to Trump by name.Trump has pledged to impose sweeping tariffs on imports into the United States, including on goods from Europe and as much as 60 percent on goods from China.Macron also referred to "fragile" climate policies, with Trump threatening to take the United States back out of the Paris accords that are aimed at reducing global warming.- Swerve -It was the same whenever leaders spoke, as they seemingly treated Trump like the villain Voldemort in the Harry Potter films and books, whose name the heroes cannot mention.UN chief Antonio Guterres swerved any head-on mention of Trump when he talked of the "very important" U.S. role on climate and how he was "deeply confident" that America would "move in the direction of climate action."The only places Trump's face could be seen were on placards held by protesters outside the summit venue -- and on the social media feed of Argentina's right-wing, Trump-supporting president.Javier Milei reposted a meme contrasting a photo of himself meeting the smiling Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort after the election, with another of Milei beside a grim-faced Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.Behind the scenes, officials were circumspect.One European diplomat said that the continent had "worked with him before" and would do so again.- 'Decisions' -US officials insisted time and again that Trump's name did not come up in outgoing President Joe Biden's final meetings with his counterparts, or even that it was a major consideration."I don’t think we are expecting some major reorientation of how other countries look at the world or look at their relationship with us," Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer told reporters."They will make those decisions for themselves based on their interests, in January."Perhaps it was partly out of deference to Biden, making his swan song on the international stage.Biden himself skirted round the issue -- in fact he has long resisted mentioning the name of the man he often calls "my predecessor," who is now his successor.The 81-year-old Biden tried to shore up his legacy while his fellow summiteers looked over his shoulder.As Biden remarked that it was his final summit, he called for leaders to "keep going -- and I’m sure you will, regardless of my urging or not."On the final day, Biden seemed to realize that the return of he-who-cannot-be named was nigh."I have much more to say," Biden said, before stopping himself and adding: "I'm not going to."

Nov 20, 2024 - World

Peruvian authorities said Tuesday they have tightened security at the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu after tourists there were filmed dispersing what were believed to be human ashes.Last week, citizens in Peru were outraged by a non-dated video on Tiktok in which a woman at the tourist site took ashes from a plastic bag and threw them in the air, then hugged another woman.The video had a caption about "saying goodbye with much love at Machu Picchu" and hashtags with the words "ashes" and "spreading ashes."The 30-second video was first shown on the account @IncaGoExpeditions, belonging to a travel agency, before it was removed from TikTok.Cesar Medina, the head of Machu Picchu archeological park, told AFP that officials were going to hire more guards and install more surveillance cameras.He said there was nothing in local laws barring people from spreading human ashes in public.But this will now be barred at Machu Picchu for health reasons, Medina said.Classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the site welcomes an average of 5,600 visitors a day but until now had only four cameras and a small team of security guards.The ancient citadel, built in the 15th century by Incan emperor Pachacuti, sits at an altitude of 2,438 meters in the Peruvian Andes.

Nov 20, 2024 - World

Checking imported books, removing texts from libraries and distributing lists of banned titles -- Taliban authorities are working to remove "un-Islamic" and anti-government literature from circulation.The efforts are led by a commission established under the Ministry of Information and Culture soon after the Taliban swept to power in 2021 and implemented their strict interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia.In October, the ministry announced the commission had identified 400 books "that conflicted with Islamic and Afghan values, most of which have been collected from the markets".The department in charge of publishing has distributed copies of the Koran and other Islamic texts to replace seized books, the ministry statement said.The ministry has not provided figures for the number of removed books, but two sources, a publisher in Kabul and a government employee, said texts had been collected in the first year of Taliban rule and again in recent months."There is a lot of censorship. It is very difficult to work, and fear has spread everywhere," the Kabul publisher told AFP.Books were also restricted under the previous foreign-backed government ousted by the Taliban, when there was "a lot of corruption, pressures and other issues", he said.But "there was no fear, one could say whatever he or she wanted to say", he added."Whether or not we could make any change, we could raise our voices."- 'Contradictory to religion' -AFP received a list of five of the banned titles from an information ministry official.It includes "Jesus the Son of Man" by renowned Lebanese-American author Khalil Gibran, for containing "blasphemous expressions", and the "counterculture" novel "Twilight of the Eastern Gods" by Albanian author Ismail Kadare."Afghanistan and the Region: A West Asian Perspective" by Mirwais Balkhi, an education minister under the former government, was also banned for "negative propaganda".During the Taliban's previous rule from 1996 to 2001, there were comparatively few publishing houses and booksellers in Kabul, the country having already been wracked by decades of war.Today, thousands of books are imported each week alone from neighboring Iran -- which shares the Persian language with Afghanistan -- through the Islam Qala border crossing in western Herat province.Taliban authorities rifled through boxes of a shipment at a customs warehouse in Herat city last week.One man flipped through a thick English-language title, as another, wearing a camouflage uniform with a man's image on the shoulder patch, searched for pictures of people and animals in the books."We have not banned books from any specific country or person, but we study the books and we block those that are contradictory to religion, sharia or the government, or if they have photos of living things," said Mohammad Sediq Khademi, an official with the Herat department for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (PVPV)."Any books that are against religion, faith, sect, sharia... we will not allow them," the 38-year-old told AFP, adding the evaluations of imported books started some three months ago.Images of living things -- barred under some interpretations of Islam -- are restricted according to a recent "vice and virtue" law that codifies rules imposed since the Taliban returned to power, but the regulations have been unevenly enforced.Importers have been advised of which books to avoid, and when books are deemed unsuitable, they are given the option of returning them and getting their money back, Khademi said."But if they can't, we don't have any other option but to seize them," he added."Once, we had 28 cartons of books that were rejected."- Clearing stock -Authorities have not gone from shop to shop checking for banned books, an official with the provincial information department and a Herat bookseller said, asking not to be named.However, some books have been removed from Herat libraries and Kabul bookstores, a bookseller told AFP, also asking for anonymity, including "The History of Jihadi Groups in Afghanistan" by Afghan author Yaqub Mashauf.Books bearing images of living things can still be found in Herat shops.In Kabul and Takhar -- a northern province where booksellers said they had received the list of 400 banned books -- disallowed titles remained on some shelves.Many non-Afghan works were banned, one seller said, "so they look at the author, whose name is there, and they are mostly banned" if they're foreign.His bookshop still carried translations of Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "The Gambler" and fantasy novel "Daughter of the Moon Goddess" by Sue Lynn Tan.But he was keen to sell them "very cheap" now, to clear them from his stock.

Nov 20, 2024 - World

It was an unlucky day in the Burmese calendar, farmer Yar Swe Kyin warned her husband in July, begging him not to go out to check on their crops.Hours later he was dead, killed by one of the countless landmines laid by both sides in Myanmar's three brutal years of civil war.In the evening, "I heard an explosion from the field," she told AFP at her home in the hills of northern Shan state."I knew he had gone to that area and I was worried."She had urged her husband to stay home because the traditional Burmese calendar, which is guided by lunar cycles, planetary alignment and other factors, marked it out as inauspicious."He didn't listen to me," she said."Now, I only have a son and grandchild left."Decades of sporadic conflict between the military and ethnic rebel groups have left Myanmar littered with deadly landmines.That conflict has been turbocharged by the junta's 2021 coup, which birthed dozens of newer "People's Defence Forces" now battling to topple the military.Landmines and other remnants of war claimed more victims in Myanmar than in any other country last year, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), with the Southeast Asian country overtaking war-ravaged Syria and Ukraine.- 'Trees were spinning' -At least 228 people -- more than four a week -- were killed by the devices and 770 more were wounded in Myanmar in 2023, it said in its latest report Wednesday.In eastern Kayah state, a short journey to collect rice to feed his wife and children left farmer Hla Han crippled by a landmine, unable to work and fearing for his family's future.He had returned home after junta troops had moved out from his village and stepped on a mine placed near the entrance to the local church."When I woke up I didn't know how I had fallen down and only got my senses back about a minute later," he told AFP."When I looked up, the sky and trees were spinning."Now an amputee, the 52-year-old worries how to support his family of six who are already living precariously amidst Myanmar's civil war."After I lost my leg to the land mine, I can't work anymore. I only eat and sleep and sometimes visit friends -- that's all I can do," he said."My body is not the same anymore, my thoughts are not the same and I can't do anything I want to... I can eat like others, but I can't work like them."His daughter Aye Mar said she had begged him not to go back into the village."When my father lost his leg, all of our family's hopes were gone," she said."I also don't have a job and I can't support him financially. I also feel I'm an irresponsible daughter."- 'Nothing is the same' -Myanmar is not a signatory to the United Nations convention that prohibits the use, stockpiling or development of anti-personnel mines.The ICBL campaign group said there had been a "significant increase" in anti-personnel mine use by the military in recent years, including around infrastructure such as mobile phone towers and energy pipelines.The church in Kayah state where Hla Han lost his leg is still standing but its facade is studded with bullet wounds.A green tape runs alongside a nearby rural road, a rudimentary warning that the forest beyond it may be contaminated.Some villagers had returned to their homes after the latest wave of fighting had moved on, said Aye Mar."But I don't dare to go and live in my house right now."She and her father are just two of the more than three million people the United Nations says have been forced from their homes by fighting since the coup."Sometimes I think that it would have been better if one side gave up in the early stage of the war," she said.But an end to the conflict looks far off, leaving Hla Han trying to come to terms with his fateful step."From that instant you are disabled and nothing is the same as before."

Nov 20, 2024 - World

Gunshots, screams, eerie laughter: South Korea's border island Ganghwa is being bombarded nightly with blood-curdling sounds, part of a new campaign by the nuclear-armed North that is driving residents to despair.Before it started, 56-year-old Kim Yun-suk fell asleep to the hum of insects and woke to the chirping of birds. Now, she is kept awake every night by what sounds like the soundtrack of a low-budget horror movie at top volume."The peaceful sounds of nature... have now been drowned out," Kim told AFP."All we hear is this noise."The campaign is the latest manifestation of steadily-declining ties between the two Koreas this year, which have also seen Pyongyang test ever more powerful missiles and bombard the South with trash-carrying balloons.Since July, North Korea has been broadcasting the noises for huge chunks of almost every day from loudspeakers along the border.The northern point of Ganghwa -- an island in the Han river estuary on the Yellow Sea -- is only about two kilometres (a mile) from the North.When AFP visited, the nighttime broadcast included what sounded like the screams of people dying on the battlefield, the crack of gunfire, bombs exploding, along with chilling music that started at 11:00 pm.In the almost pitch-black fields, sinister noises echoed as the stars in the clear night sky shone beautifully alongside the coastal road lights, creating a stark and unsettling contrast.North Korea has done propaganda broadcasts before, said 66-year-old villager Ahn Hyo-cheol, but they used to focus on criticising the South's leaders, or idealizing the North.Now "there were sounds like a wolf howling, and ghostly sounds", he said."It feels unpleasant and gives me chills. It really feels bizarre."Ganghwa county councillor Park Heung-yeol said that the new broadcasts were "not just regime propaganda -- it's genuinely intended to torment people".- Torture -Experts said the new broadcasts almost meet the criteria for a torture campaign."Almost every regime has used noise torture and sleep deprivation," Rory Cox, a historian at University of St Andrews, told AFP."It is very common and leaves no physical scarring, therefore making it deniable."Exposure to noise levels above 60 decibels at night increases the risk of sleep disorders, experts said, but AFP tracked levels of up to 80 decibels late at night on Ganghwa during a recent trip."I find myself taking headache medicine almost all the time," An Mi-hee, 37, told AFP, adding that prolonged sleep deprivation due to the noise has also led to anxiety, eye pain, facial tremors and drowsiness."Our kids can't sleep either, so they've developed mouth sores and are dozing off at school."Distraught and desperate, An travelled to Seoul and got on her knees to beg lawmakers at the National Assembly to find a solution, breaking down in tears as she described the island's suffering."It would actually be better if there were a flood, a fire, or even an earthquake, because those events have a clear recovery timeline," An said."We have no idea if this will go on until the person in North Korea who gives the orders dies, or if it could be cut off at any moment. We just don't know."- '70s horror flick' -The noise tormenting Ganghwa island residents appeared to be a rudimentary mix of clips from a sound library, typically common at any TV or radio broadcasters, audio experts told AFP.The sound effects are "like something found in a South Korean horror film in the 70s and 80s," said sound engineer Hwang Kwon-ik.The two Koreas remain technically at war since the 1950 to 1953 conflict ended in an armistice not a peace treaty.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year declared Seoul his "principal enemy" and has ramped up weapons testing and built closer military ties with Russia.The isolated and impoverished North is known to be extremely sensitive about its citizens gaining access to South Korean pop culture.Some experts have suggested the latest broadcasts could be aimed at preventing North Korean soldiers from hearing the South's own propaganda broadcasts, which typically feature K-pop songs and international news.In August, just weeks after South Korea resumed K-pop broadcasts in response to Pyongyang floating trash-carrying balloons south, a North Korean soldier defected by crossing the heavily fortified border on foot.But Lee Su-yong, an audio production professor at the Dong-Ah Institute of Media and Arts, said "if there is sound coming towards the North that you want to mask, then the sound (you use to cover it) must also be directed toward the North.""It seems less about masking noise and more about inflicting pain on people in the South," he told AFP.Choi Hyoung-chan, a 60-year-old resident, said the South Korean government had failed to protect vulnerable civilians on the frontier."They should come here and try to live with these sounds for just ten days," he told AFP, referring to officials in Seoul."I doubt they could even endure a single day."