Major General Saw Chit-thu (left), Major General Saw Tin Win (middle) and Colonel Saw Htoo Eh-mu (right) are seen at the ceremony to officially change the name of the BGF to the KNA on January 1. A Chinese national who escaped from the Yulong Bay (aka Shwe Pi Tauk Myaing) online money laundering operation near Thae Pon village in Myawaddy township, owned by Colonel Saw Htoo Eh-mu, the son of Karen National Army (KNA) leader Major General Saw Chit-thu. Many foreigners are being tortured and forced to work in the Yulong Bay (aka Shwe Pi Tauk Myaing) online money laundering operation near Thae Pon village in Myawaddy township, according to a Chinese national who escaped from the operation. Mizzima Special Correspondent Han Htoo Zaw (Mizzima) A Chinese survivor who recently escaped the Yulong Bay (also known as Shwe Padauk Myaing) online scam compound near Thae Pone village, Myawaddy Township, has exposed a brutal system of daily torture, extortion, and forced labour involving over ...
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Trump sets meeting with Venezuelan opposition leader, Caracas under pressure
Machado has been sidelined by Washington since US forces seized long-term authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro on January 3 and the Trump administration announced it would be “running” Venezuela.
Disregarding Machado and her understudy Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, Trump has been working instead with acting president Delcy Rodriguez, left in power with other Maduro allies.
A US administration official told AFP the Republican president will meet Machado at the White House on Thursday.
Venezuela, meanwhile, announced it had freed 116 more people jailed under Maduro — many for taking part in protests after his disputed 2024 election.
Rights groups questioned the numbers, and family members clamored for speedier releases promised by Caracas under pressure from Washington.
Relatives have been camped out at prisons for days, growing increasingly restless as loved ones have failed to appear.
“We simply ask that they keep their word,” said Manuel Mendoza, who had driven six hours to be at the El Rodeo prison, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Caracas, for his son’s Jose Daniel’s anticipated release.
“It’s already been four nights waiting out in the open air, suffering.”
UN experts and the opposition said only about 50 prisoners have been freed so far out of the 800-1,200 that rights groups estimate are being held.
– Papal intervention? –
Machado on Monday urged Pope Leo XIV to “intercede” on behalf of prisoners.
“I asked him to intercede for all Venezuelans who remain kidnapped and disappeared,” Machado said after an audience with the pontiff at the Vatican.
Gonzalez Urrutia — who ran as the opposition’s presidential candidate in 2024 after Machado was disqualified by institutions loyal to Maduro — said “every hour that passes is a new form of violence against families” of prisoners.
Rodriguez, despite being a staunch Maduro ally, is negotiating with Washington, which is looking to take advantage of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
US envoys visited Caracas last week to discuss reopening Washington’s embassy there seven years after diplomatic ties were severed.
On Sunday, Trump said he was open to a meeting with Rodriguez and that his administration was working “really well” with hers.
He said he hoped the freed prisoners “will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done.”
But experts mandated to a UN fact-finding mission said in a statement Monday that the dozens of people freed so far was “far short of Venezuela’s international human rights obligations.”
Frustration was growing among about 40 relatives still camped out outside El Rodeo prison, where some had set up tents.
Rights NGO Foro Penal said 15 people had been released from the facility, but family members told AFP they were whisked away through a back exit without seeing the loved ones waiting for them.
The government in Caracas said a review of prisoner files was ongoing.
– ‘Transition to democracy’ –
Machado said she had underscored Urrutia’s “legitimacy” in her talks with Leo and sought the pope’s backing for “the prompt advancement of the transition to democracy in Venezuela.”
The opposition and much of the international community consider Urrutia the legitimate victor of Venezuela’s last presidential election.
Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year and dedicated it to Trump, who has made no secret of his frustration at being passed over for the award.
In Caracas Monday, Rodriguez made a number of ministerial changes, naming a former Maduro bodyguard as minister of the presidential office — charged with managing her agenda and liaising with state agencies.
She also replaced the head of the presidential guard, who leads the feared counterintelligence unit.
Her government said it was ready to pursue a “new agenda” with the European Union and Britain following talks Monday with their envoys.
Rakhine people travel by motorcycle in Sittwe, Rakhine State, Western Myanmar, 02 February 2021. Photo: Nyunt Win/EPA By AFP The world's longest internet shutdown -- affecting more than a million people for 19 months in one of Myanmar's ethnic conflict zones -- has come to an end, according to a mobile operator based in the region. The internet in parts of Myanmar's troubled northern states of Rakhine and Chin was suspended in June 2019 following "emergency" orders issued by the telecoms department under Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government. Following Monday's military coup, mobile operator Telenor Group confirmed it had reinstated full services in eight townships in Rakhine and Chin states on Wednesday. "Telenor Group and Telenor Myanmar have been advocating for the restoration of services and emphasised that freedom of expression through access to telecoms services should be maintained for humanitarian purposes," the company said in a stateme...
Mizzima Myanmar held the first meeting among newly appointed ministers after a recent major cabinet reshuffle by the military in capital city of Nay Pyi Taw on Tuesday morning, according to a release from the Military True News Information Team Xinhua reported. The Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, acting President U Myint Swe and nine newly appointed union ministers were present at the meeting held at the Presidential Palace, the release said. Min Aung Hlaing unveiled plans to include reopening religious buildings and pagodas, resuming domestic travel and hotel businesses as well as industries in line with COVID-19 rules and regulations, and revitalizing the country's economy.
File photo of Indonesian police personnel standing guard. (Photo: AFP) AFP Indonesia has detained a British woman named on a list of global terror suspects and plans to deport her for visa violations, authorities told AFP Tuesday. Tazneen Miriam Sailar -- a Manchester-born convert to Islam married to an Indonesian jihadist who was killed in Syria -- is not charged with terror offences. But she and her late husband are on an Indonesian police list of suspected extremists that includes several foreigners notorious in the West. Sailar, 47, and her 10-year-old Indonesia-born son, were being held in Jakarta after being picked up last year without documents allowing her to remain in the Southeast Asian nation, her lawyer Farid Ghozali said. "She was put (in detention) while awaiting her return, which will be facilitated by the British embassy," Indonesian immigration directorate spokesman Ahmad Nursaleh told AFP. The embassy declined to comment, and it was unclear when...
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