AUNG SAN SUU KYI'S REMAND EXTENDED TILL 17 FEB

The detention of State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint has been extended until February 17 as both have been under house arrest since the military took control of the country in a military coup on February 1.

While people have been staging nationwide protests for the release of civilian leaders chanting and holding signs that read: "Free our leader."

"Daw Aung Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint will be detained for two more days until February 17 as their trial continues," Myanmar Times quoted U Khin Maung Zaw, who is representing Daw Suu in court.

They will appear in court by video-conference, said U Khin Maung Zaw.

Despite military repression, widespread protests continue across Myanmar, including Yangon and other key cities.

The generals imposed an hours-long internet shutdown Monday morning and ratcheted up the military's presence across the country overnight, including armoured vehicles in Yangon, the nation's commercial hub and biggest city.

On Tuesday, another internet blackout blanketed Myanmar, dropping connectivity to 15 percent of ordinary levels, according to UK-based monitoring group NetBlocks.

9/11-STYLE COMMISSION TO PROBE CAPITOL RIOT: NANCY PELOSI

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that Congress will establish an independent, September 11-style commission to look into the deadly insurrection that took place at the US Capitol.

Pelosi said the commission will "investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex . and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power."

In a letter to Democratic colleagues, Pelosi said the House will also put forth supplemental spending to boost security at the Capitol.

After former President Donald Trump's acquittal at his second Senate impeachment trial, bipartisan support appeared to be growing for an independent commission to examine the deadly insurrection.

Investigations into the riot were already planned, with Senate hearings scheduled later this month in the Senate Rules Committee. Pelosi, D-Calif., asked retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore to lead an immediate review of the Capitol's security process.

In her letter Monday, Pelosi said, "It is clear from his findings and from the impeachment trial that we must get to the truth of how this happened."

She added, "As we prepare for the Commission, it is also clear from General Honore's interim reporting that we must put forth a supplemental appropriation to provide for the safety of Members and the security of the Capitol."

NEW ZEALAND IMPOSES 3-DAY LOCKDOWN ON AUCKLAND AFTER 3 COVID-19 CASES EMERGE

New Zealand Prime Minsiter Jacinda Ardern on February 14 announced a three-day lockdown in the country's biggest city Auckland, after three new local COVID-19 cases were reported.

Ms. Ardern said the level 3 restrictions, which require everyone to stay home except for essential shopping and essential work, were being imposed, repeating the super cautious approach the country has taken over the past year in stamping out the pandemic.

New Zealand has not had any local virus cases for months until the recent infections and was ranked the best performing in an index of almost 100 countries based on containment of the coronavirus. By closing its international borders early, the island nation virtually eradicated the virus in the early stage of the pandemic.

SEPARATIST WIN IN CATALAN ELECTION RIPPLES THROUGHOUT SPAIN

The future government of Spain’s restive Catalonia region is in the hands of a man who is spending his nights in a prison cell for committing acts of sedition against the state.

Republican Left of Catalonia led by Oriol Junqueras, who is serving a 13-year sentence for his part in a 2017 secession attempt by Catalonia, is positioned to choose its governing partners after this weekend’s inconclusive regional election boosted the separatists’ power.

While the pro-union Socialist Party of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez claimed a narrow victory in votes, candidate Salvador Illa has a very difficult path to forming a government.

Republican Left of Catalonia tied the Socialists in seats, with both set to send 33 lawmakers each to the regional legislature.

But it has more potential partners to woo into a coalition thanks to the good showing by its brethren in the separatist camp, which increased its power in Sunday’s election despite years of frustrated ambitions to create a new Mediterranean nation.

On the back of a record low turnout, the three main parties who want to create a Catalan state expanded their majority in the Barcelona-based parliament to 74 seats of the 135-seat chamber, up from 70 in 2017.

Granted leave by penitentiary authorities to spend election night with his party members, Junqueras told Catalan public television on Monday morning that the Republican Left of Catalonia would seek to forge a “broad” coalition to make candidate Pere Aragonès Catalonia’s next regional president.

AUSTRALIAN PM APOLOGISES, PROMISES PROBE AFTER ALLEGATION OF RAPE IN PARLIAMENT

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison apologised on Tuesday to a woman who alleged she was raped in the country’s parliament by an unnamed colleague, and promised a thorough investigation into the government’s workplace culture.

The woman said she had been raped in the office of Defence Minister Linda Reynolds in March 2019 by someone who also worked for Morrison’s ruling Liberal party.

She told local media she spoke with the police in early April of that year, but she decided against making a formal complaint amid concerns about her career prospects. Police in the capital confirmed they had spoken to a complainant in April 2019, but she chose not to make a formal complaint.

The woman said she told senior staff in Reynolds’ office of the alleged attack. She said she was then asked to attend a meeting in the office where she says she was assaulted.

Reynolds on Monday confirmed she had been told of the complaint last year, though she denied the woman was pressured against making a police complaint.

Morrison on Tuesday apologised to the woman and promised an investigation.

“That should not have happened, and I do apologise,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra. “I want to make sure any young woman working in this place is as safe as possible.”

WHO APPROVES ASTRAZENECA/OXFORD COVID-19 VACCINE FOR EMERGENCY USE

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday listed AstraZeneca and Oxford University's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, widening access to the relatively inexpensive shot in the developing world.

"We now have all the pieces in place for the rapid distribution of vaccines. But we still need to scale up production," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, told a news briefing.

"We continue to call for COVID19 vaccine developers to submit their dossiers to WHO for review at the same time as they submit them to regulators in high-income countries," he said.

A WHO statement said it had approved the vaccine as produced by AstraZeneca-SKBio (Republic of Korea) and the Serum Institute of India.

ISRAELI RESEARCHERS SAY PFIZER'S VACCINE SHARPLY REDUCES SYMPTOMATIC COVID-19 IN REAL WORLD

Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine appears to reduce symptomatic coronavirus infections by more than 90 per cent in the real world, according to Israeli researchers.

According to CNN, the preliminary findings published on Monday suggest that the vaccine remains remarkably effective in a mass vaccination campaign - outside the carefully controlled conditions of a clinical trial.

The Clalit Research Institute analysed data on 1.2 million people, about half of whom had received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Researchers compared patients who received the vaccine with similar individuals who hadn't.

The rate of symptomatic Covid-19 - meaning people who were infected with the coronavirus and felt sick - decreased by 94 per cent among people who received two doses of the vaccine, according to a press release from Clalit. The rate of serious illness decreased by 92 per cent.

CNN further reported that while full details of the study weren't immediately available, and the research hasn't yet been peer-reviewed. Still, the findings are consistent with data from Pfizer's own vaccine trial, which found that the vaccine conferred 95 per cent protection against symptomatic Covid-19.

CHINESE COUPLES RUSH TO FILE FOR DIVORCE AS NEW STRINGENT LAW KICKS IN

China's new divorce law, which makes it harder for couples to split, has sent husbands and wives rushing to file applications to dissolve their marriages as they think that the new conditions complicate the process and compromise their freedom, a media report quoted lawyers as saying.

Under the new law, which was implemented from last month after being passed by the National People's Congress (NPC) last year despite criticism from the public, couples who mutually agree to dissolve their marriage must complete a month-long “cooling-off” period to reconsider their positions.

After the 30 days have passed, couples can go to their local civil affairs bureau to apply a second time for their official divorce documents.

Divorce lawyers have been inundated with requests from couples to file for divorce once their 30 days are over, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Monday.

CHINA DID NOT FUND ANY INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS OF CPEC, SAYS PAKISTAN

Beijing has not funded any infrastructure project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative, said the Senate Special Committee on CPEC projects.

According to a report by The Express Tribune, during the committee meeting Senator Sikandar Mandhro, chief of transport planning at the Pakistan Planning Ministry, said because of the absence of the CPEC funding, some projects, including the Khuzdar-Basima project, were being carried out from the federal development funds.

Meanwhile, Committee member Senator Kabir Ahmad Shahi informed that only paperwork was carried out on CPEC.

"The project started in a way that a tent was set up with a watchman sitting there. The fence around the New Gwadar International Airport is a shambles," he said.

Moreover, the projects under the Gwadar Smart Port City Master plan have not been started.

In 2015, China announced an economic project in Pakistan worth USD 46 billion. With the CPEC, Beijing aims to expand its influence in Pakistan and across Central and South Asia in order to counter the influence of the United States and India.

The CPEC would link Pakistan's southern Gwadar port (626 kilometers, 389 miles west of Karachi) in Balochistan on the Arabian Sea to China's western Xinjiang region. It also includes plans to create road, rail and oil pipeline links to improve connectivity between China and the Middle East.