Suu Kyi ‘will be above president’ if NLD wins Myanmar election
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said she would be “above the president” if her National League for Democracy wins Sunday’s election.
The NLD is widely expected to do well in the election, but Ms Suu Kyi is banned from taking the role of president by the constitution.
The BBC’s Jonah Fisher in Yangon says her comment was her strongest assertion yet that she intends to govern anyway.
The elections will be Myanmar’s first openly contested polls in 25 years.
More than 90 parties are standing in the first national elections since a nominally civilian government took power in 2011.
Ms Suu Kyi told the news conference in Yangon, her last before polls open: “I will be above the president. It’s a very simple message.”
She said there was nothing in the constitution which prevented this.
Clause 58 in Myanmar’s constitution, however, states that the president “takes precedence over all other persons” in the country.
‘Significant possibility’ that Isis downed Russian plane, UK says – live updates
- UK grounds flights to Egypt over security fears
- Cameron to chair another Cobra emergency committee
- 20,000 Britons stranded
- British experts due to inspect security at Sharm el-Sheikh airport
- Egypt’s president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi due to hold talks with Cameron
Rescue flights could start on Friday
Million mask march: How Guy Fawkes became the global face of modern protest
November 5 marks the night when Guy Fawkes infamously attempted to kill King James I by blowing up the British Houses of Parliament. But 410 years later, how has his image become the global symbol of modern protest?
As night falls across the UK on November 5, thousands of families will be heading out to their nearest park to enjoy the local bonfire and fireworks display, whilst likely tucking into some bonfire specialities such as Parkin or toffee apples.
The British tradition marks the day in 1605 when Catholic would-be terrorist Guy Fawkes was arrested after attempting to assassinate King James I by blowing up the Houses of Parliament in London.
On the same night, in cities both in the UK and around the world, thousands of people are also due to take to the streets for the global “Million Mask March” and don their “Guy Fawkes” masks – a pale bearded face, made famous by Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s 1980s graphic novel “V for Vendetta” and the 2006 Warner Bros. film of the same name.
Taliban burn down girls’ school in Afghanistan
Abdullah Saljoqi
It was one of the only schools in Afghanistan’s Logar province still teaching girls. But on the night of October 28th, Taliban insurgents – who are opposed to female education past the age of eight – set fire to the Haji Golan school.
Haji Golan, a public primary school in Polalam, is located 65 kilometres south of Kabul in the violence-wracked Logar province. Abdullah Saljoqi, a journalist in Herat, western Afghanistan, learned all the details of the attacks as it unfurled via his contacts in Polalam. The authorities attribute this attack to the Taliban.
“Even schools that abide by the rules get attacked”
At about 3am, three militias attacked the Haji Golan school. The militants first tied up the school’s night watchman, then set fire to the building and fled. The inside of the school burned for three hours, until the watchman managed to escape and contain the fire with the help of neighbours. Thankfully, nobody was hurt since only the watchman was at the school at that time of the night.
Intolerance has always existed: Niti Aayog’s Bibek Debroy
Surojit Gupta,TNN | Nov 5, 2015, 02.32 AM IST
Niti Aayog’s member Bibek Debroy is a renowned economist who is known for speaking his mind. In an interview to TOI, Debroy reflects on the issue of intolerance and cites examples to show the need for multiple views. Excerpts:
Q: A debate has been raging on the issue of intolerance in the country. What has been your experience?
A: What is generally not known is that Jagdish Bhagwati was essentially made to leave Delhi School of Economics and had to go abroad because his life was made very uncomfortable. He left DSE because there is a certain prevailing climate of opinion and if you buck that, your life is made uncomfortable.
In the course of the second five-year plan, a committee of economists was set up to examine it. Dr B.R. Shenoy was the only one who opposed it. Do you find Dr Shenoy’s name mentioned in the history of union policymaking? No. He was completely ostracized. He could not get a job in India and he ended up in Ceylon.
Nigeria’s Buhari puts anticorruption drive into high gear
The new president took office six months ago, promising to put an end to impunity in the business and political elite. Last week, he started to deliver.
ABUJA, NIGERIA — The penalties handed out by the Nigeria government last week came rapidly, one blow after another.
First there was the suspension of the CEO of a major banking franchise for supposedly misleading statements over two years. That was followed by a $9.4 million fine imposed on First Bank of Nigeria, one of the country’s largest banks.
But the biggest surprise was when the government fined MTN, Africa’s largest cell carrier, $5.2 billion for failing to disconnect customers with unregistered SIM cards.
In a country where impunity by big business and the political elite is rarely punished, the uptick in penalties has been eye-catching. But for those who voted for President Muhammadu Buhari, each one is a confirmation that their leader’s campaign promise to bring discipline to Nigeria is taking root.