Despite outcry, more Rohingya moved
DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Bangladesh's government sent a fourth group of Rohingya Muslim refugees to an island in the Bay of Bengal on Saturday, ignoring calls from human-rights groups for a halt to the move.
The 1,466 Rohingya who had been living in the sprawling refugee camps of Cox's Bazar were sent Saturday to Bhasan Char, an island specifically developed to accommodate 100,000 of the 1 million Rohingya who have fled from neighboring Burma. That follows 1,776 refugees who made the trip on Friday.
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The relocations began in December and have been criticized by human-rights groups, who say many of the refugees are being forced to move against their will.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government have denied that and said the relocations will continue.
Bangladesh has said that ultimately it is up to Burma to take the refugees back and has called on the international community to put pressure on Burma's government to ensure their safe return.
More than 1 million Rohingya have fled waves of violent persecution in their native Burma and are currently living in overcrowded, squalid refugee camps in the Cox's Bazar district.
Burma is often called Myanmar, a name that military authorities adopted in 1989. Some nations, such as the United States and Britain, have refused to adopt the name change.
Deaths reported in blast in Syrian town
BEIRUT -- A car bomb killed at least four people Saturday in a rebel-held town in northern Syria, opposition activists said.
The explosion in Afrin wounded more than a dozen others, hitting an industrial area during the afternoon rush hour on the first working day of the week.
Explosions in northern regions controlled by opposition fighters backed by neighboring Turkey have left scores of people dead or wounded over the past months.
Efrinnews 24, an activist collective that covers events in Afrin, said Saturday's blast killed four Turkey-backed opposition fighters and wounded others.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the blast killed five, including two children, and wounded 15.
Turkey and allied Syrian fighters took control of Afrin in 2018 in a military operation that expelled U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters and displaced tens of thousands of Kurdish residents.
Turkey considers the Kurdish fighters who were in control of Afrin a security threat. Since then, there have been a series of attacks on Turkish targets in the area.
UAE to give more foreigners citizenship
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- The United Arab Emirates on Saturday announced plans to grant some foreigners citizenship to the oil-rich nation that's home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, part of efforts to stimulate its economy during the coronavirus pandemic.
The UAE previously gave citizenship to Palestinians and others who helped build the country's government after its formation in 1971. Others have received it over time as well.
Saturday's announcement by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai who also serves as the autocratic nation's prime minister and vice president, said the offer could apply to artists, authors, doctors, engineers and scientists, as well as their families.
Mohammed wrote on Twitter that hereditary rulers in the country's seven emirates and at the federal level would nominate those for citizenship. Those granted citizenship also would be able to keep their initial citizenship.
It wasn't immediately clear if the citizenship would grant rights to the UAE's social programs for its citizens.
The UAE is home to over 9 million people, only a tenth of them citizens. In November, the UAE announced plans to overhaul of the country's laws, allowing unmarried couples to cohabitate, loosening alcohol restrictions and criminalizing so-called honor killings.
Covid patients' fire deaths draw protest
BUCHAREST, Romania -- Hundreds of people protested outside Romania's Health Ministry the day after a fatal fire at one of the country's main hospitals for covid-19 patients, calling Saturday for the resignations of the president, the health minister and the emergencies chief.
At least five people died in the fire, which broke out early Friday on the ground floor of the Matei Bals hospital in Bucharest and forced the evacuation of more than 100 people. It was the third hospital fire in Romania in as many months.
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The protest was organized by the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, a right-wing political party established a little over a year ago by leaders who opposed same-sex marriage and have supported Orthodox clerics who defied pandemic restrictions to hold religious ceremonies.
Alliance for the Unity of Romanians co-president George Simion said the party and its supporters "want the resignation of those responsible," naming Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu and the head of the emergency agency, Raed Arafat. He said the party would donate its state financing to go toward the construction of a new hospital.
