EU DECRIES VIOLENCE AGAINST CIVILIANS IN MYANMAR

The EU foreign policy chief on Saturday called on Myanmar’s military junta to end violence against civilians.

“The military authorities must immediately stop the use of force against civilians and allow the population to express their right to freedom of expression and assembly,” Josep Borrell said in a statement.

Earlier, the UN Human Rights Office condemned the escalation of violence against anti-coup protesters in Myanmar, and said it has credible information that the use of force in the country left at least 18 people dead and more than 30 others wounded.

Borrell called the latest developments a “brutal repression of peaceful protests.”

The EU foreign policy chief said that security forces should be held accountable for “shooting unarmed citizens” which is a “blatant disregard for international law”.

“Violence will not give legitimacy to the illegal over-throwing of the democratically-elected Government”, he added.

“The European Union will take measures in response to these developments shortly,” Borrell said.

EU foreign ministers did not impose restrictive measures on Myanmar during their meeting on Monday, but said the bloc was ready to order asset freeze and travel ban on those directly responsible for the military coup.

Myanmar has seen large protests since the military declared a state of emergency on Feb. 1 after detaining Suu Kyi and senior members of the then-ruling National League for Democracy (NLD).

TRUMP, RETURNING TO POLITICAL STAGE, TEASES POSSIBLE 2024 RUN

Donald Trump told conservatives Sunday he was considering running for president again in 2024, as he reasserted dominance over the Republican Party and warned of a "struggle" for America's very survival.

Echoing the grievance politics of his 2016 campaign and the harsh rhetoric of his one-term presidency, the 74-year-old fired up an enthusiastic crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando.

In a keynote speech -- his first since leaving the White House on January 20 -- he repeated his false claims that he won the election instead of President Joe Biden, and hammered establishment Republicans who voted against him in the latest impeachment drama.

But while he teased his future plans, he left the crowd guessing about whether he will challenge Biden in a rematch.

"With your help we will take back the House, we will win the Senate, and then a Republican president will make a triumphant return to the White House -- and I wonder who that will be?" Trump said to a raucous cheer.

"Who knows?" he boomed about his potential plans. "I may even decide to beat them for a third time, OK?"

"We're in a struggle for the survival of America as we know it," Trump said. "This is a terrible, terrible, painful struggle."

But he said the "incredible" populist movement that propelled him to victory four plus years ago is just beginning, "and in the end, we will win."

Trump also put to rest the rumors that he might take his base of support to create a new political party.

"I am not starting a new party," Trump said. "We have the Republican Party. It's going to unite and be stronger than ever before."

FACEBOOK TO PAY $650MN SETTLEMENT OVER US PRIVACY DISPUTE

A US federal judge has given final approval to Facebook's $650 million payment to settle a privacy dispute between the social media giant and 1.6 million users in the state of Illinois.

"We are pleased to have reached a settlement so we can move past this matter, which is in the best interest of our community and our shareholders," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement to AFP.

The decision was issued on Friday, according to documents seen by AFP on Sunday.

Chicago attorney Jay Edelson sued Facebook in 2015, alleging it illegally collected biometric data to identify faces in violation of a 2008 Illinois privacy law.

At the end of January 2020, Facebook agreed to pay $550 million after it failed to get the lawsuit -- filed as a class action in 2018 -- dismissed.

But in July 2020, the judge in the case, James Donato, ruled that the amount was insufficient.

During the trial, it emerged that Facebook was violating Illinois law by storing biometric data -- digital scans of people's faces, in support of its face-tagging feature -- without users' consent.

According to Donato, the regulation is "a landmark result" and represents a "major win for consumers in the hotly contested area of digital privacy."

"It is one the largest settlements ever for a privacy violation," he commented, noting that plaintiffs will receive at least $345 each in compensation.

IRAN SAYS TIME NOT ‘SUITABLE’ FOR NUCLEAR DEAL MEETING

Iran said Sunday it does not consider the time to be “suitable” for an informal meeting — proposed by Europe and involving the U.S. — on the embattled 2015 nuclear deal.

The European Union’s political director earlier this month proposed the informal meeting involving Iran and the United States. U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has accepted in principle.

Following Biden’s election, Washington, the European parties to the deal -- France, Germany and Britain -- and Tehran have been trying to salvage the 2015 nuclear accord, which granted Iran international sanctions relief in return for restrictions on its nuclear programme.

The accord has been nearing collapse since former president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.

“Considering the recent positions and actions of the United States and the three European countries, (Iran) does not consider the time suitable to hold the informal meeting proposed by the European coordinator”, foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a statement.

“There has still been no change in the U.S. positions and behaviour yet,” he added, saying the Biden administration has continued “Trump’s failed policy of maximum pressure”.

ISRAEL TO VACCINATE PALESTINIAN LABOURERS AGAINST COVID-19

Israel will administer Covid-19 vaccines to Palestinians who work in Israel or in its settlements in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli liaison office COGAT said on Sunday.

The vaccination campaign, which could apply to around 130,000 Palestinians, will begin within days, COGAT said.

Shaher Saad, secretary-general of the Palestinian Workers' Union, said thousands of Palestinians who work in the Israeli service and industrial sectors had already been vaccinated privately by their employers inside Israel.

He said that under the new Israeli programme, Palestinian medical teams would be stationed at checkpoints to administer shots. Moderna Inc's vaccine will be used, COGAT said.

Israel has given at least one dose of Pfizer Inc's Covid-19 vaccine to more than half of its 9.3 million population, including Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

But it has come under international criticism for not doing more to enable vaccination of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel captured the territories in the 1967 war. It quit Gaza in 2005, which is now under Islamist Hamas rule, but maintains a clampdown on the enclave's borders with Egypt's support.

The Palestinians have received around 32,000 vaccine doses to date, for the 5.2 million people who live in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israeli officials have said that, under the Oslo peace accords, the Palestinian health ministry is responsible for vaccinating people in Gaza and those parts of the West Bank where it has limited self-rule.

Sunday's announcement drew a measured welcome from Dan Waites, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

REMOVE ME IF YOU CAN: PM OLI CHALLENGES PRACHANDA

Nepal’s embattled Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on Sunday challenged the ruling Nepal Communist Party’s splinter faction led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ to remove him from the top post if he can.

Addressing an event in his home district, Jhapa, Prime Minister Oli challenged the Prachanda-led faction to table a vote of no confidence motion and endorse that, My Republica newspaper reported.

“K P Oli is still the parliamentary party leader of the NCP. He is the party chairman as well as the prime minister,” 69-year-old Oli said. “If you have restored parliament, remove KP Oli from the prime ministerial post.”

The ruling party suffered a vertical split following Oli’s decision to dissolve the lower house.

“Remove me if you can. If I am ousted, I’ll emerge victorious with a two-thirds majority in the next election,” Prime Minister Oli was quoted as saying by the paper.

Prachanda has been making efforts to garner support from the opposition Nepali Congress and Janata Samajbadi parties in an apparent bid to oust Oli from power.

Oli’s Press Adviser Surya Thapa last week said the prime minister will not resign immediately and implement the Supreme Court’s verdict against him by facing Parliament.

BEIJING COULD BE PREPARING FOR A FULL-SCALE INVASION OF TAIWAN: REPORT

China's 'gray zone' warfare against Taiwan is now at the highest level, which could mean that Beijing is preparing for a full-scale invasion, Focus Taiwan reported citing local military experts warned on Thursday.

Gray zone conflicts are activities by a state that are harmful to another state and are sometimes considered to be acts of war, but are not legally acts of war.

Shu Hsiao-huang, an analyst at the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), said that in gray-zone conflicts, the participants rely on unconventional tools, tactics and the use of non-state entities that do not cross over into formal state-level aggression.

Due to ambiguity of the enemy's actions, the targets of 'gray-zone' warfare are often uncertain how to immediately respond, he said.

Over the past years, Beijing has been conducting "gray-zone" warfare against Taipei, using tactics such as propaganda campaigns, economic pressure, online rumours, and disinformation via content farms to put political pressure on the Taiwan government, Shu said.

That type of warfare against Taiwan is now at its highest level, which could mean that Beijing is preparing for a full-scale invasion, although high tensions do not necessarily mean physical war, he said.

At the forum, former Defense Minister Andrew Yang said Beijing has been engaged in a "war of attrition," with the aim of wearing down Taiwan politically, militarily, and psychologically.

SYRIA INTERCEPTS ISRAELI MISSILES OVER DAMASCUS: STATE MEDIA

Syrian air defences intercepted Israeli missiles over Damascus on Sunday, Syrian state news agency SANA said.

Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has routinely carried out raids in Syria, mostly targeting Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces as well as government troops.

“At 10:16 this evening (2016 GMT) the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan on some targets in the Damascus area,” SANA reported a military source as saying.

“Our air defence confronted the missiles and downed most of them,” the source added.

There was no immediate report of casualties.

The Israeli army said it did not comment on reports in foreign media.

Israeli state broadcaster Kan had reported that leaders of Israel’s security establishment met on Sunday evening to discuss an alleged Iranian attack on an Israeli-owned vessel in the Gulf of Oman this week.

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said on Saturday he believed Iran was behind the explosion Thursday on the MV Helios Ray, a vehicle carrier.

ISRAELI-OWNED SHIP DOCKED IN DUBAI AFTER MYSTERIOUS BLAST

An Israeli-owned cargo ship that suffered a mysterious explosion in the Gulf of Oman came to Dubai’s port for repairs Sunday, days after the blast that revived security concerns in Mideast waterways amid heightened tensions with Iran.

An Associated Press journalist saw the hulking Israeli-owned MV Helios Ray sitting at dry dock facilities in Dubai. Although the crew was unharmed in the blast the vessel sustained two holes on its port side and two on its starboard side just above the waterline, according to American defense officials.

It remains unclear what caused the blast, but the incident comes amid sharply rising tension between the U.S. and Iran over its unraveling 2015 nuclear deal. Iran has sought to pressure President Joe Biden’s administration to grant the sanctions relief it received under the accord with world powers that former President Donald Trump abandoned.

The blast on the ship Friday recalled a string of attacks on foreign oil tankers in 2019 that the U.S. Navy blamed on Iran. Tehran denied any role in the suspected assaults, which happened near the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil chokepoint.

The Helios Ray had discharged cars at various ports in the Persian Gulf before making its way out of the Middle East toward Singapore.

The blast hit as the ship was sailing from the Saudi port Dammam out of the Gulf of Oman, forcing it to turn to Dubai for inspection.

Iranian authorities have not publicly commented on the ship. Israeli media has run reports saying the assessment in Israel is that Iran was behind the blast.

RUSSIA LAUNCHES ITS FIRST ARCTIC MONITORING SATELLITE

A Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sunday carrying Russia's first satellite for monitoring the Arctic's climate, the Roscosmos space agency said.

Video published by the Russian space agency showed the Soyuz blaster launching against grey skies at 0655 GMT, carrying an Arktika-M satellite.

Space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin wrote on Twitter Sunday that the launch was routine.

"The 'Arktika' hydrometeorological and climate monitoring space system is designed to monitor the climate and environment in the Arctic region," Roscosmos said in a statement.

The monitoring system will need at least two satellites to operate properly, the space agency said.

"As part of the system, they will provide round-the-clock all-weather monitoring of the Earth's surface and the seas of the Arctic Ocean," it added.

The launch of the second Arktika-M satellite is planned for 2023, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.