TAIWAN – Taiwan has been rattled by a cluster of dozens of earthquakes that caused buildings to sway and that the government said were aftershocks from the huge quake that hit the island more than two weeks ago.

The strongest of the latest tremors, which the United States Geological Survey measured at a magnitude of 6.1, hit at about 2.30am (18:30 GMT) followed minutes later by a 6.0 tremor. Taipei’s Central Weather Administration put them at 6.0 and 6.3, respectively. The seismic activity, which was centred around Hualien on the east coast, caused buildings across large parts of northern, eastern and western Taiwan to shake throughout the night. There were no reports of casualties.

Office worker Kevin Lin, who lives in the capital Taipei, told the AFP news agency that the quake woke him. “I was too scared to move and stayed in bed,” the 53-year-old said.

At about 8am (00:00 GMT), a 5.8-magnitude tremor shook the capital as commuters made their way to work.

The mountainous county of Hualien, about 150km (93 miles) from Taipei, was the epicentre of a magnitude-7.2 quake that struck the island on April 3, severely damaging buildings in Hualien City and triggering landslides in the surrounding countryside. At least 14 people were killed, and there have been more than 1,100 aftershocks.

Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration said the latest cluster of earthquakes were also aftershocks.

Seismological Centre Director Wu Chien-fu told reporters that the quakes were a “concentrated release of energy” and that more could be expected, although perhaps not as strong.

In Hualien, the government announced that schools and offices remained closed yesterday due to the continuous aftershocks. Buildings that partially collapsed in the April 3 quake, including the Full Hotel and the nearby Tong Shuai Building, were further damaged. Both were empty and have already been marked for demolition.

The April 3 quake was the most serious in Taiwan in 25 years, but the toll was relatively contained thanks to widespread public awareness campaigns and stricter building standards. The island of 23 million people lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is no stranger to powerful earthquakes.

(Al Jazeera)…[+]

MYANMAR – Reports of deposed former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s move to house arrest are “questionable,” her son said yesterday, adding he believed the ruling military junta wants to keep her location secret to deter resistance attacks on the capital as a civil war rages.

In an interview with CNN, Kim Aris cast doubt on recent reports in Myanmar local media, citing a military spokesperson, that 78-year-old Suu Kyi, the longtime democracy icon and Nobel laureate, had been moved from her prison cell ostensibly due to the unbearable heat. “It’s hard to know their motives. And as far as whether she’s been moved or not, that’s questionable as well,” Aris told CNN’s Anna Coren. “There’s conflicting reports coming out. In the past, they have said that she’s been moved to house arrest and that has proved to be completely not the case.”

Aris, who lives in Britain, is the younger son of Suu Kyi and her late husband Michael Aris. He said he believes his mother is “either still in prison or she’s in the residence of a military official.” “Her only house is a house that she has in Rangoon and she’s definitely not there,” he said, using the former name for Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city.

In comments reported by several media outlets last week, junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said: “Since the weather is extremely hot, it is not only for Aung San Suu Kyi … For all those, who need necessary precautions, especially elderly prisoners, we are working to protect them from heatstroke.” Suu Kyi has been detained in military custody since army chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing seized power in a coup on February 1, 2021, ending Myanmar’s brief transition to democracy and plunging the Southeast Asian nation into a raging civil conflict. Her condition and whereabouts have been kept tightly under wraps by the ruling junta and she has been photographed just once while attending a court hearing in the capital Naypyidaw in May, 2021.

Aris said his mother has been prevented from meeting with her legal counsel. “I believe they’ve been trying to meet for some time and nothing has come with that. As far as I’m aware, she’s not been able to see anybody outside of military personnel or prison personnel since, well, last year at some point, I think was the last time she saw her lawyers.”

As State Counsellor, Suu Kyi was Myanmar’s de facto leader for five years before being forced from power and detained after her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), was re-elected in a landslide election against military-backed opposition in 2020. She has been hit with a range of charges and is now serving a 27-year sentence following a series of secretive trials.

Aris recently told Reuters he believes the junta was using his mother as a “human shield” as the military fights an armed nationwide resistance determined to oust it from power. “As the fighting is getting closer and closer, I think it serves the military’s purpose for the resistance forces not to know where my mother is, so they find it harder to target strikes against the military in Naypyidaw. The less they know of my mother’s whereabouts, the harder it is for them,” Aris told CNN. Widespread public opposition to the military’s forcible takeover and bloody crackdown on protesters has only grown in the past three years and the pro-democracy resistance movement, which includes many of the country’s powerful ethnic rebel armies, now poses a legitimate threat to the junta. The military is facing battlefield and territorial losses on multiple fronts across the country, and there are reports of mass defections of soldiers. The military has since ramped up its violent attacks on civilians, with widespread reports of human rights abuses that amount to war crimes, extrajudicial killings, burning whole villages and indiscriminate use of airstrikes, according to human rights groups. It has also enacted a mandatory conscription law to boost its armed forces with compulsory service.

Since the coup, the junta has locked up more than 20,000 people considered to be political prisoners, according to local advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years under house arrest during a previous military junta, has denied all of the charges levied against her – and rights groups and international observers say her convictions are politically motivated.

(CNN)…[+]

US – A former tabloid newspaper publisher is set to resume his testimony in the historic criminal trial of Donald Trump in New York City.

David Pecker ran the National Enquirer, which prosecutors say suppressed negative stories about Mr Trump as the 2016 election loomed. The case relates to hush-money paid to a porn star who Mr Trump allegedly had sex with – though he denies doing so.

The court will also hear whether Mr Trump has broken the judge’s gag order. He is accused by the prosecution of routinely breaking a restriction that prevents him from publicly attacking witnesses, prosecutors and relatives of court staff.

The partial order was earlier imposed Justice Juan Merchan, the seasoned New York jurist presiding over the trial. Mr Trump has continued to post about those involved in the case online. The legal case has seen Mr Trump accused of trying to cover up a $130,000 (£104,500) payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before he won the race for the White House back in 2016. Ms Daniels alleges that she had sex with Mr Trump in 2006 and that she was paid by his lawyer to stay quiet about it ahead of the pivotal vote.

The trial centres on a reimbursement Mr Trump made to his former personal lawyer and “fixer”, Michael Cohen. Cohen claims he was directed to pay Ms Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence about her alleged affair with Mr Trump.

Hush money payments are not illegal. But prosecutors allege that Mr Trump committed a crime by improperly recording the money with which he reimbursed Cohen as legal expenses. They describe this as an effort to unlawfully influence the 2016 vote – which is what escalates the allegation into a more serious felony. “It was election fraud, pure and simple,” a lawyer told the jury on Monday during opening statements by both legal teams. Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.

Setting out the case for the defense, Mr Trump’s lawyer said his client was “cloaked in innocence”, had committed no crimes, and that it was not illegal to try to influence an election. The defence also sought to cast prosecutors’ star witness – Mr Cohen – as untrustworthy.

Mr Pecker was the trial’s first witness. He took the stand briefly on Monday, and will today resume his testimony. He is the former CEO of American Media Inc (AMI), the parent company of the National Enquirer.

Prosecutors allege that when running that tabloid, he pursued a practice known as “catch-and-kill” to support Mr Trump’s 2016 presidential run. He did this by buying the rights to stories that cast Mr Trump in a bad light. He would then decline to publish them, which effectively suppressed the damaging information.

A former Playboy model says she was paid $150,000 by AMI for her story of an alleged affair with Trump – which he also denies.

This payment, the court heard, was to keep her quiet about the purported tryst during the final weeks of the election campaign.

(BBC)…[+]

HAITI – Three million children in Haiti are in need of humanitarian assistance as continuing gang violence hampers aid delivery, the head of the UN children’s agency, Unicef, has said. Catherine Russell said the situation in gang-wracked Haiti was “catastrophic” and growing worse “by the day”. She told a meeting of the UN Security Council that in many areas essential services had collapsed.

Meanwhile, a transitional presidential council has still not been sworn in. While Haiti has been blighted by gangs for years, the armed groups stepped up their attacks at the end of February when Prime Minister Ariel Henry travelled to Kenya to seal a deal for a multinational security force to be deployed to the Caribbean nation. Mr Henry was prevented from returning to Haiti as the gangs attacked the international airport, forcing its closure.

Even though the gangs said that their main aim was the ouster of Mr Henry, they have continued to carry out attacks on the police force. They have also looted universities and libraries, torched pharmacies and forced the closure of the capital Port-au-Prince’s largest hospital. Non-governmental groups say the armed groups now control an estimated 90% of Port-au-Prince.

According to Unicef, 2.7m people live in areas under effective gang control with children often becoming victims of their attacks. “Each day, children are being injured or killed. Some are being recruited, or they are joining armed groups out of sheer desperation,” Ms Russel told the UN Security Council meeting in New York on Monday.

And on Monday, the Varreux terminal – through which most of the fuel destined for the capital passes – was forced to suspend operations as armed men seized trucks and blocked access roads. Clashes between the police and gang members were also reported in the vicinity of the National Palace, the building where the transitional council is due to be sworn in.

(BBC)…[+]