Subject: Morning Brief: Myanmar Jails Two Reporters After Uncovering Atrocities
From: "Foreign Policy" <[email-masked]>
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Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2018 07:43:05 -0500 (CDT)

Myanmar Jails Two Reporters After Uncovering Atrocities

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MORNING BRIEF

Today's Global News from Foreign Policy

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09/04/2018

09/04/2018

TOP NEWS

Myanmar Jails Two Reporters After Uncovering Atrocities

Top News: A Myanmar judge sentenced two Reuters journalists to seven years in prison for violating colonial-era secrecy laws.

The two reporters, Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were investigating a massacre of Rohingya Muslims committed by state security forces amid Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing campaign against the minority population.

They pleaded not guilty and testified that they received confidential documents from two police sources in December and were subsequently arrested by other officers. One police officer testified it was a sting to entrap the reporters.

More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled into neighboring Bangladesh since the campaign began last August.

“This is disappointing … to democracy, rule of law and press freedom,” the reporters’ lawyer, Than Zaw Aung, said of the conviction.

The court ruling was met with condemnation from the United States, Australia, France, United Kingdom, European Union, United Nations, and other press-freedom advocates.

Afghanistan: The founder of the Haqqani network, a jihadi group with ties to the Taliban and al Qaeda which was behind many attacks on Afghan and coalition forces, has died. The Taliban announced the death of Jalaluddin Haqqani following a decade of poor health.

AFRICA

•  A conservation group discovered the carcasses of 87 elephants killed by poachers near a protected sanctuary in northern Botswana.

•  The highest Congolese court barred former vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba, a top opposition figure, from running in the country’s presidential election because of a conviction pending sentencing at the International Criminal Court.

•  Some 400 prisoners escaped from a Libyan prison amid a wave of militia violence in the capital after the Tripoli government declared a state of emergency.

AMERICAS

•  Argentina announced it would abolish “about half” of its government ministries in austerity measures to address a currency crisis.

•  A fire engulfed the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, destroying millions of items in the 200-year-old museum.

•  U.S. President Donald Trump accused his attorney general of harming Republicans for indicting two Republican lawmakers on charges of insider trading and misusing campaign funds.

ASIA

•  Chinese President Xi Jinping announced $60 billion in loans and financing to African countries during a summit in Beijing.

•  Two Muslim lesbian women were publicly whipped in a Sharia courtroom in Malaysia.

•  One U.S. service member was killed and another wounded in an apparent insider attack by an Afghan security official.

EUROPE

•  Pope Francis emphasized the need for silence and prayer in the wake of new allegations that he helped cover up sexual abuse.

•  More than 1,600 people have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean so far this year, according to a U.N. refugee agency report.

•  German authorities announced they would ramp up surveillance on far-right youth political groups.

MIDDLE EAST

•  President Trump warned Syria, Iran, and Russia not to “recklessly attack” the rebel-held province of Idlib.

•  Turkish inflation nearly reached 18 percent, a 15-year high, in August following economic troubles and a diplomatic dispute with the United States.

•  The Egyptian Antiquities Ministry announced the discovery of a village in the Nile delta as old as 5,000 B.C.

- By Robbie Gramer

YE AUNG THU/AFP/Getty Images

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