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Author: AFP

  • Israel sets Ramadan deadline for Rafah assault

    Israel sets Ramadan deadline for Rafah assault

    Israel will launch its long-threatened offensive against Rafah next month if the remaining hostages held in Gaza are not freed by the start of Ramadan, Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz said.

    “The world must know, and Hamas leaders must know — if by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue everywhere, including the Rafah area,” Gantz, a retired military chief of staff, told a conference of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem on Sunday.

    Ramadan, the holy month, is expected to begin on March 10.

    The Israeli government has not previously specified a deadline for its planned assault on the city where the majority of the 1.7 million displaced Palestinians have sought refuge.

    Fearing the potential for mass casualties, foreign governments and aid organisations have repeatedly urged Israel to spare Rafah, the last major Gazan city not invaded by ground troops during the four-month-old war.

    Despite the mounting international pressure, including a direct appeal from US President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists the war cannot be completed without pressing into Rafah.

    Speaking at the same Jerusalem conference on Sunday, Netanyahu renewed his vow “to finish the job to get total victory” over “Hamas”, with or without a hostage deal.

    Gantz added that an offensive would be carried out in a coordinated manner and in conversation with Americans and Egyptians to facilitate an evacuation and “minimise the civilian casualties as much as possible”.

    But where civilians can safely relocate to on the besieged Gaza Strip remains unclear.

    The comments come after weeks of ceasefire talks have failed to produce a deal, with key mediator Qatar acknowledging over the weekend that the prospects are dimming.

    Washington, Israel’s key ally and military backer, has been pushing for a six-week truce in exchange for the release of the 130 hostages still estimated by Israel to be held in Gaza, including around 30 presumed dead.

    Israel has said it believes many of those hostages, as well as the Hamas leadership, are holed up in Rafah.

    The militants took about 250 people hostage during the October 7 attacks that triggered the war and resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures.

    Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 28,858 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.

  • Italy, Home Of The Mafia, Now One Of Europe’s Safest Countries

    Italy, Home Of The Mafia, Now One Of Europe’s Safest Countries

    Italy may be the land that launched Cosa Nostra, but today it is one of the safest countries in Europe, with a murder rate well below its neighbours.

    From the mid-19th century through to the 1990s, thousands of people died in mafia violence, from rivals or traitors cast in cement or fed to pigs, to judges, priests and witnesses killed for daring to defy the mob.

    There were also the traumatic “Years of Lead” from the end of the 1960s to the 1980s, when armed groups from the extreme left and extreme right brought terror to Italy with bombings and assassinations.

    The brutal murder of former prime minister Aldo Moro by the Marxist-Leninist Red Brigades in 1978 is burned into the national psyche, although the largest number of the estimated 400 victims of the period were killed by neo-fascists.

    But when this bloody period ended, and after a crackdown on mafias which pushed them into less violent financial crime, the murder rate plummeted.

    Back in 1990, there were 34 murders per one million inhabitants in Italy, compared to 24 in neighbouring France, according to UN figures.

    In 2021-22, this had fallen to 5.5 per million in Italy and 11 in France, eight in Germany and 10 in the UK.

    In Europe, only Norway and Switzerland have a murder rate lower or equal to Italy’s, while Latvia, the worst, has a rate 6.5 times higher.

    “Homicides in general have decreased in the last 25 years, especially the percentage of men” — who previously were the main victims of mafias, noted Raffaella Sette, a sociologist at the University of Bologna.

    Just 10 percent of murders each year are now blamed on organised crime.

    “The mafias — the Camorra, the ‘Ndrangheta, the Cosa Nostra — have radically changed their way of operating,” said Gianluca Arrighi, a criminal lawyer who writes police novels.

    “Today, they operate from a more economic point of view, buying up real estate, entering into companies,” he said.

    Analysing the causes of violence across different countries is always risky, but Arrighi believes several factors are at play.

    While Italy is poorer than its comparable EU neighbours, he says this is not always detrimental to social well-being, saying “goodwill” between people can help compensate for life’s difficulties.

    “The higher the conflict in a society, the higher the number of murders, committed by people who are in some state of anger,” Arrighi told AFP.

    The murder rate is, however, higher in the south of Italy, the poorest part of the country.

    But Stefano Delfini, head of criminal analysis at the government’s department of public security, agrees that “our society is less violent”.

    “The social fabric is more resistant, probably because of the presence of family values which mean difficulties are felt in a less harsh way.”

    Another factor that drives violence in other countries is alcohol or drug use, particularly in France and the UK.

    Italy does not keep data on this, but consumption of alcohol is the lowest in the EU, according to the World Health Organization.

    There is rising awareness in Italy about femicides — killing of a woman or girl by a partner, spouse or family member — with 97 recorded in 2023, out of a total 330 murders.

    A lack of harmonised data on femicides makes comparisons with other European countries difficult.

    But statistics compiled by the World Bank for 2021 show a rate of 3.9 murders of women per one million people in Italy, well below the 6.8 in France and 8.0 in Germany.

    © Agence France-Presse

  • El Salvador, where women are jailed for miscarriages

    El Salvador, where women are jailed for miscarriages

    Lilian was 20 when her newborn baby died of medical complications at a hospital in El Salvador, where abortion is a crime and even the suspicion of one can land a woman in jail.

    Lilian was arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison for “aggravated homicide” after her infant daughter passed away at a public hospital in Santa Ana in the country’s west in November 2015.

    “I gave birth naturally, but I had a tear in my uterus,” recounted Lilian, now 28, who declined to give her full name to protect her family.

    She was sedated for a procedure to fix the tear, and when she awoke, “I knew my baby was dead.”

    Her nightmare did not end there.

    “I was first accused of abandonment and neglect, but the prosecution called it ‘aggravated homicide’ and I was convicted in May 2016,” she told AFP.

    A report found Lilian’s baby had died of neonatal sepsis, yet she spent eight years behind bars for ‘aggravated homicide’

    Last year, a medical report concluded that her baby had died of neonatal sepsis, a finding that resulted in Lilian’s early prison release in November with the aid of women’s rights NGOs.

    By then, she had already served eight years behind bars.

    “If she (the baby) had been treated in time, she would not have died. I wouldn’t have wasted so many years of my life in prison,” said Lilian, whose other daughter was just two when it happened and was raised by her grandparents.

    “I only saw her twice, I did not see her grow up.”

    Lilian is the last of 73 Salvadorans to be released from prison in the last decade under a campaign by rights groups to free women serving sentences of up to 50 years for abortions, miscarriages, or birthing complications.

    In Latin America, elective abortion is legal in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Cuba and Uruguay

    Almost all are from poor backgrounds in rural areas where health services are precarious, said Arturo Castellanos, a social worker with the Citizens’ Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion.

    Alba Lorena Rodriguez, now 36, became pregnant at 21 after an acquaintance raped her.

    Five months pregnant, she went into premature labor at home.

    “I had to give birth to him myself, I fainted, I dropped” the baby, she told AFP.

    A neighbor called the police, and Rodriguez, who has two other daughters, was arrested at the infant’s funeral.

    “I felt the world come crashing down on me, because I knew I wasn’t going to see the girls, and they were punishing me for something I hadn’t done,” she said.

    “The one who raped me was on the outside with his family and I (was)… imprisoned. The law is unfair,” said Rodriguez, who said she had no defense lawyer and no chance for anything like a fair trial.

    Rodriguez served 10 years of a 30-year sentence before she, too, was released.

    Both women chose to talk to AFP in the capital San Salvador, far from their own villages where the punishment has not stopped.

    When the jailed women leave prison, “the community discriminates against them and stigmatizes them,” Castellanos said.

    Alba Lorena Rodriguez, now 36, became pregnant after she was raped by an acquaintance at the age of 21

    In Latin America, elective abortion is legal in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Cuba and Uruguay.

    It is banned outright, without exceptions for health risks or other circumstances, in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

    Nowhere are the penalties as severe as in El Salvador, however.

    Under the law there, abortion is punishable by two to eight years in prison. But the charge is often changed to “aggravated homicide,” which carries a penalty of 30 to 50 years.

    Since 1998, when abortion was criminalized in El Salvador, 199 women have been sentenced.

    Since Lilian’s release last year, none remain imprisoned, but seven women are awaiting trial, according to the Citizens’ Group.

    “No one can give me back my lost time. I’m rebuilding the bond with my daughter,” said Lilian, who would like to see the law changed so that other women do not have to go through what she has.

    But President Nayib Bukele, newly elected to a second five-year term with near-total control of parliament, has said there will be no change to abortion laws in the deeply Christian country.

    “The struggle continues,” said Lilian.

    Since abortion was criminalized in El Salvador in 1998, a total of 199 women have been sentenced
  • Trump fined $355 mn, banned from NY business in fraud trial

    Trump fined $355 mn, banned from NY business in fraud trial

    A New York judge ordered Donald Trump to pay $355 million over fraud allegations and banned him from running companies in the state for three years Friday in a major blow to his business empire and financial standing.

    Trump — almost certain to be the Republican presidential nominee this November — was found liable for unlawfully inflating his wealth and manipulating the value of properties to obtain favorable bank loans or insurance terms.

    Trump lashed out on social media calling the ruling a “Total SHAM,” the judge in the case “crooked” and the prosecutor who brought it “totally corrupt.” His legal team said he would “of course” appeal.

    As the case was civil, not criminal, there was no threat of imprisonment. But Trump said ahead of the ruling that a ban on conducting business in New York state would be akin to a “corporate death penalty.”

    Trump, facing 91 criminal counts in other cases, has seized on his legal woes to fire up supporters and denounce his likely opponent, President Joe Biden, claiming that court cases are “just a way of hurting me in the election.”

    However, Judge Arthur Engoron said the financially shattering penalties are justified by Trump’s behavior.

    “Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” Engoron said of Trump and his two sons, who were also defendants, in his scathing ruling.

    “They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money… Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways,” he added, referring to the perpetrator of a massive Ponzi scheme.

    Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. were also found liable in the case and ordered to pay more than $4 million each, prompting Don Jr. to claim on social media that “political beliefs” had determined the outcome.

    Engoron also extended the mandate of retired judge Barbara Jones as an independent monitor of Trump’s business affairs, as well as ordering the appointment of an independent director of compliance to the Trump Organization, with candidates to be nominated by Jones.

    “Conditions that Judge Engoron imposed, such as having Judge Jones monitor the Trump companies, may be onerous. I do expect an appeal,” said Richmond University law professor Carl Tobias.

    It was as a property developer and businessman in New York that Trump built his public profile which he used as a springboard into the entertainment industry and ultimately the presidency.

    The judge’s order was a victory for New York state Attorney General Letitia James. She had sought $370 million from Trump to remedy the advantage he is alleged to have wrongfully obtained, as well as having him barred from conducting business in the state.

  • Top UN court rejects South Africa request for more Gaza measures

    Top UN court rejects South Africa request for more Gaza measures

    THE HAGUE: The UN’s top court Friday rejected South Africa’s request to put more legal pressure on Israel to halt a threatened offensive against the Gaza city of Rafah, saying it was “bound to comply with existing measures.”

    Pretoria has already filed a complaint against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, alleging that its assault on Gaza amounts to a breach of the Genocide Convention.

    The court has yet to rule on the underlying issue, but on January 26 it ordered Israel to ensure it took action to protect Palestinian civilians from further harm and to allow in humanitarian aid.

    South African officials on Tuesday filed a further request to the court, asking it to order new measures in the light of Israel’s preparation of a new operation against Rafah.

    More than half of Gaza’s 2.4 million population have sought shelter there from Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip.

    The ICJ’s judges acknowledged that the recent developments “’would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences’” — citing remarks by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

    But although Israel needed to act immediately to ensure the safety and security of Palestinians, that did not require “the indication of additional provisional measures,” they added.

    Israel remained “bound to fully comply with its obligations under the Genocide Convention and with the said Order,” the ICJ ruling said.

    Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

    Militants also took about 250 people hostage, around 130 of whom are still in Gaza, including 30 who are presumed dead, according to Israeli figures.

    Israel’s assault on Gaza has since killed at least 28,775 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

    Israel’s foreign minister on Friday said the country would coordinate with Egypt before launching any military offensive in the southern border city of Rafah.

    “We will operate in Rafah after we coordinate with Egypt,” Israel Katz told journalists on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, where 180 dignitaries have gathered to discuss conflicts around the globe.

    Fears had been growing for the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled the north of Gaza to Rafah as Israeli troops advanced into the territory to wage war on Hamas.

    But Israel is now planning a major operation in the overcrowded city. With the border to Egypt closed, nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are essentially trapped there.

  • Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny dies in prison

    Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny dies in prison

    Moscow, Russia – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died Friday in the Arctic prison colony where he was serving a 19-year-term, Russia’s federal penitentiary service said.

    Western governments immediately attacked the Kremlin over the death of the most outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin.

    Navalny lost consciousness after a walk and could not be revived by medics, the prison service said.

    “Navalny felt bad after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness. Medical staff arrived immediately and an ambulance team was called,” it said.

    “Resuscitation measures were carried out which did not yield positive results. Paramedics confirmed the death of the convict. The causes of death are being established.”

    The 47-year-old was Russia’s most prominent opposition leader and won a huge following with his criticism of corruption in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

    Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had opened an investigation into the death.

    Navalny’s press secretary Kira Yarmysh said his team had not been informed of his death.

    “Alexei’s lawyer is now flying to Kharp,” where his prison colony is, she said in a post on social media.

    Citing his spokesman, Russian news agencies reported that Putin had been informed of Navalny’s death.

    Western governments and Russian opposition figures on Friday said the Kremlin was responsible for his death.

    Latvia’s president said he had been “brutally murdered by the Kremlin”.

    “The Russian government bears a heavy responsibility,” Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

    France’s foreign minister said Navalny had paid with his life for resisting oppression.

    Opposition leader

    Navalny’s exposes, posted on his YouTube channel racked up millions of views and brought tens of thousands of Russians to the streets, despite Russia’s harsh anti-protests laws.

    He was jailed in early 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he was recuperating from a near-fatal poisoning attack with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent.

    In a string of cases he was sentenced to 19 years in prison on charges widely condemned by independent rights groups and in the West as retribution for his opposition to the Kremlin.

    His return to Russia despite facing jail put him on a collision course with Putin, after Navalny blamed the poisoning attack in Siberia on the Kremlin.

    “I’m not afraid and I call on you not to be afraid,” he said in an appeal to supporters as he landed in Moscow, moments before being detained on charges linked to an old fraud conviction.

    His 2021 arrest spurred some of the largest demonstrations Russia had seen in decades, and thousands were detained at rallies nationwide calling for his release.

    In prison, Navalny’s team said he had been harassed and repeatedly moved to a punitive solitary confinement cell.

    He said guards had subjected him and other inmates to “torture by Putin”, making them listen to the president’s speeches.

    From behind bars he was a staunch opponent of Moscow’s full-scale military offensive against Ukraine.

    The Kremlin moved to dismantle his organisation, locking up his allies and sending dozens of others into exile.

    Late last year he was moved to a remove Arctic prison colony in Russia’s Yamalo-Nenets region in northern Siberia.

    The last post on Navalny’s Telegram channel, which he managed through his lawyers and team in exile, was a tribute to his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, posted on Valentine’s Day.

  • Alarm over fate of major Gaza hospital after Israeli raid

    Alarm over fate of major Gaza hospital after Israeli raid

    Palestinian Territories – There was growing concern Friday over a key Gaza hospital a day after a raid by the Israeli army, with the health ministry saying several patients had died there due to a lack of oxygen.

    The health ministry said the power was cut off and the generators stopped after the raid at the Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis, and that four patients had died Friday.

    In recent days, intense fighting has raged in the vicinity of the hospital – one of the Palestinian territory’s last remaining major medical facilities that are still operational.

    On Thursday Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said there was “credible intelligence” to suggest hostages seized by Gaza militants in the October 7 attack that sparked the war had been held at the hospital, and that bodies of some of the captives may still be inside.

    But the military said later it had “not yet found any evidence of this”, although forces had found “weapons, grenades and mortar bombs” at the hospital complex.

    On Friday it said Israeli forces had taken into custody more than “20 terrorists” suspected of involvement in the October 7 attack at the hospital.

    A witness who declined to be named out of fear for their safety told AFP the army had shot “at anyone who moved inside the hospital”.

    The health ministry also raised fears over the fate of six other patients in the intensive care unit and three children, saying it held Israel “responsible for the lives of patients and staff considering that the complex is now under its full control”.

    ‘Pattern of attacks’

    Medical charity Doctors Without Borders described a “chaotic situation” at the hospital, with one employee unaccounted for and another detained by Israeli forces.

    “Our medical staff have had to flee the hospital, leaving patients behind,” it said.

    Footage circulating on social media, which AFP could not independently verify, showed rescuers trying to move patients through dust-filled corridors amid fallen debris.

    At least 28,775 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s assault on the Palestinian territory, according to the health ministry.

    The UN Human Rights Office said Israel’s raid on the Nasser hospital appeared to be “part of a pattern of attacks by Israeli forces striking essential life-saving civilian infrastructure in Gaza, especially hospitals”.

    The World Health Organization has described the Nasser hospital as a critical facility “for all of Gaza”, where only a minority of hospitals are even partly operational.

    Israeli strikes continued in the besieged territory overnight, with the health ministry saying Friday another 112 people were killed.

    ‘Dying slowly’

    Nearly 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are trapped in Rafah – more than half of Gaza’s population – seeking shelter in a sprawling makeshift encampment near the Egyptian border.

    There are fears about a growing humanitarian disaster without adequate supplies.

    “They are killing us slowly,” said displaced Palestinian Mohammad Yaghi. “We are dying slowly due to the scarcity of resources and the lack of medications and treatments in the city of Rafah.”

    “There is no medicine,” said Jihan al-Quqa, who was displaced from Khan Yunis to Rafah.

    “There are no antibiotics or any other treatments,” she added.

    “Everyone is sick, children and the elderly, and there is no medicine.”

    US President Joe Biden spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late Thursday, the White House said, and urged him again not to carry out an attack on Rafah without a plan to keep civilians safe.

    Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have also urged Israel not to launch a ground offensive in the city.

    Despite international pressure, Netanyahu has insisted he would push ahead with a “powerful” operation in the overcrowded city to achieve “complete victory” over Hamas.

    Media reports suggested Egyptian authorities were building a new wall near the frontier with Gaza, amid fears of an influx of refugees.

    Truce talks

    Mediators from the United States, Qatar and Egypt gathered in Cairo this week to try and broker a deal to halt the fighting and see the release of the remaining hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

    CIA director Bill Burns made an unannounced visit to Israel Thursday for talks with Netanyahu and the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea.

    Barnea had already held talks with Burns and Egyptian and Qatari representatives in Cairo on Tuesday, before a Hamas delegation visited Wednesday.

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he believed an agreement was still “possible”.

    But there has been limited sign of progress.

    Netanyahu said Thursday he rejected a plan for international recognition of a Palestinian state, following reports of the move in The Washington Post.

    burs-rox/dv

    © Agence France-Presse

  • Modi’s government accused of freezing Congress funds ahead of elections

    Modi’s government accused of freezing Congress funds ahead of elections

    India’s main opposition Congress party said on Friday that its bank accounts had been frozen by the tax department just weeks before the expected announcement of national elections.

    Critics and rights groups have accused India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of using law enforcement agencies to selectively target its political foes.

    Congress spokesman Ajay Maken said the action against his party was aimed at sidelining it ahead of the polls.

    “When the principal opposition party’s accounts have been frozen just two weeks before the announcement of the national elections, do you think democracy is alive in our country?” he asked reporters.

    “Don’t you think it is going towards one party system?” he added.

    Four of Congress’s accounts had been frozen after an investigation of the party’s 2018-19 income tax returns, Maken said.

    He added that the tax department had issued a payment demand for 2.1 billion rupees ($25.3 million) in relation to its probe.

    Maken conceded that the party had filed its returns late by up to 45 days but insisted it had done nothing to warrant such a penalty.

    “Today is a sad day for Indian democracy,” he said, adding that the party was appealing the decision in court and would stage public protests.

    India’s Congress party spokesman Ajay Maken addresses a press conference at All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters in New Delhi on February 16. — AFP

    Friday’s announcement follows numerous legal sanctions and active investigations against leading opponents of Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

    Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, scion of the dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades, was convicted of criminal libel last year after a complaint by a member of Modi’s party.

    His two-year prison sentence saw him disqualified from parliament for a time until the verdict was suspended by a higher court, but raised concerns over democratic norms in the world’s most populous country.

    ‘Face the consequences’

    Congress is a member of an opposition party alliance hoping to challenge Modi at this year’s polls, and other leading figures in the bloc have also found themselves under investigation.

    Arvind Kejriwal, leader of the Aam Aadmi Party and chief minister of the capital region Delhi, has repeatedly been summoned by investigators probing alleged corruption in the allocation of liquor licences.

    Earlier this month police arrested Hemant Soren, until then the chief minister of eastern Jharkhand state and another leading figure in the opposition alliance, for allegedly facilitating an illegal land sale.

    India’s main financial investigation agency, the Enforcement Directorate, has ongoing probes against at least four other chief ministers or their families, all of whom belong to the BJP’s political opponents.

    Other investigations have been dropped against erstwhile BJP rivals who later switched their allegiance to the ruling party.

    Virendra Sachdeva, president of the BJP’s Delhi branch, said on Friday that Congress had only itself to blame for the freezing of its accounts.

    “It is unfortunate that a big party like Congress is not following government rules,” he told the Press Trust of India news agency.

    “If it is not following the rules, then it has to face the consequences. “

  • Thailand To Offer Medical Coverage For Tourists

    Thailand To Offer Medical Coverage For Tourists

    Thailand has launched a scheme to offer visitors up to $14,000 in medical coverage in the event of an accident, the tourism minister said Thursday, as the kingdom seeks to lure travelers back after the pandemic.

    The government will cover expenses up to 500,000 baht ($14,000) and pay compensation of up to one million baht in case of death under the new scheme.

    Travel restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic hammered the kingdom’s vital tourism sector and arrivals have not bounced back as quickly as officials hoped.

    Tourism minister Sudawan Wangsuphakijkosol told AFP the new Thailand Traveller Safety scheme began on January 1 and will run until August 31.

    “The campaign aims to assure foreign tourists that Thailand is safe and everyone will be under good care,” she said.

    The kingdom has long been popular with young backpackers from around the world seeking sun, sand and adrenalin.

    But accidents are not uncommon and there have been numerous reports in recent months of young Europeans finding themselves facing big medical bills with inadequate insurance.

    The Thai government stresses that the scheme will not cover accidents caused by “negligence, intent, illegal acts” or risky behaviour.

    Tourists can register for the scheme through the Thailand Traveller Safety website at tts.go.th.

    Some 28 million people visited Thailand in 2023, up from 11 million the year before, but still well down from the 40 million who came in 2019, the last year before the pandemic.

    Officials are hoping to hit 35 million visitors in 2024, with a target of $55 billion in revenue.

  • Bangladesh Nobel winner Yunus says his firms ‘forcefully’ taken over

    Bangladesh Nobel winner Yunus says his firms ‘forcefully’ taken over

    Bangladesh Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus said on February 15 several of his firms were “forcefully” taken over, weeks after his conviction in a criminal case his supporters say was politically motivated.

    Mr. Yunus, 83, is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank but has earned the enmity of long-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has accused him of “sucking blood” from the poor.

    He told a press conference that on February 12, a group of “outsiders” had come to a building housing several of his companies, taking over offices and locking out staff.

    “Some people came and took control forcefully,” he said, without giving further details on those involved.

    “We’re in deep trouble. It’s a big disaster,” he added. “They are trying to run the companies according to their rules.”

    Mr. Yunus said police refused to register a criminal case regarding the apparent takeover.

    “They find no problems” with the occupation, he said.

    Earlier on Feb. 15, dozens of people who told employees they were supporters of the ruling Awami League stood at the gates of the building to refuse entry to staff.

    “They did not allow us to enter the building,” Mainul Hasan, a general manager of one of the Yunus-chaired firms, told AFP.

    Some of those who entered the building told those present that they were the new directors of several of the firms, existing employees said.

    Last month, Mr. Yunus and three colleagues from Grameen Telecom, one of the firms he founded, were sentenced to jail for six months after they were found guilty of violating labour laws.

    ‘Continuous judicial harassment’

    All four deny the charges, which supporters and rights groups said were politically motivated, and have been bailed pending appeal.

    Mr. Yunus is facing more than 100 other charges over labour law violations and alleged graft.

    Last year, around 160 global figures, including former US president Barack Obama and ex-U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, published a joint letter denouncing “continuous judicial harassment” of Mr. Yunus.

    The signatories, including more than 100 of his fellow Nobel laureates, said they feared for “his safety and freedom”.

    Critics accuse Bangladeshi courts of rubber-stamping decisions made by Hasina’s Government, which won re-election last month in a vote without genuine Opposition parties.

    Her administration has been increasingly firm in its crackdown on political dissent, and Mr. Yunus’s popularity among the Bangladeshi public has for years earmarked him as a potential rival.