* Visit comes as violence rises in Rakhine state
* India concerned about stream of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar
* India to push for faster infrastructure projects
* New Delhi keen to counter Chinese clout in Myanmar
By Tommy Wilkes
NEW DELHI, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will discuss rising violence in Myanmar's western Rakhine state during a visit that begins on Tuesday, and push for greater progress on long-running Indian infrastructure projects, officials said.
India seeks to boost economic ties with resource-rich Myanmar, with which it shares a 1,600-km (1,000-mile) border, to counter Chinese influence and step up connectivity with a country it considers its gateway to Southeast Asia.
Two-way trade has grown to around $2.2 billion as India courted Myanmar following the gradual end of military rule, but Indian-funded projects have moved slowly.
Modi's promises to "Act East" and cement ties with India's eastern neighbour have slipped even as China has strengthened its influence.
His first bilateral visit comes amid a spike in violence in Rakhine, after a military counter-offensive against insurgents killed at least 400 people and triggered the exodus of nearly 90,000 villagers to Bangladesh since Aug. 25.
The violence could hit development of a transport corridor that begins in Rakhine, with the Indian-built port of Sittwe and includes road links to India's remote northeast, analysts said.
"It's going to be a very vexed and complex issue," said Tridivesh Singh Maini, a New Delhi-based expert on ties with Myanmar.
"You need to play it very smartly. You need to make it clear that Rakhine violence has regional implications...but India will not get into saying, 'This is how you should resolve it.'"
Last month, India said it wanted to deport 40,000 Rohingya refugees who left Myanmar in previous years.
Modi arrives from China late on Tuesday in the capital Naypyidaw to meet President Htin Kyaw on a three-day visit.
New Delhi believes the best way to reduce tension in Rakhine is through development efforts, such as the Kaladan transport project there, said Indian foreign ministry official Sripriya Ranganathan.
"We are very confident that once that complete corridor is functional, there will be a positive impact on the situation in the state," she told reporters.
Modi will meet Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and visit the heritage city of Bagan and a Hindu temple. The countries share close cultural ties, and several in Myanmar trace their roots to India.
Modi will also talk up a trilateral highway project connecting India's northeast with Myanmar and Thailand.
"There is a fear that China is already going full steam ahead," said Udai Bhanu Singh of Delhi think-tank, the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. "From the Indian side, there has been some laxity."
Singh said India could offer Myanmar help in building its navy and coastguard, while Myanmar would seek assurances that India was a reliable economic partner and an alternative power to Beijing. (Reporting by Tommy Wilkes; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Clarence Fernandez)
India's Modi heads to Myanmar as Rohingya refugee crisis worsens
India's Modi heads to Myanmar as Rohingya refugee crisis worsens
The world begins welcoming 2025 with light shows, embraces and ice plunges
- More than a million people gathered at the Sydney Harbor for the celebration
- Much of Japan has shut down ahead of the nation’s biggest holiday
WELLINGTON, New Zealand: From Sydney to Mumbai to Nairobi, communities around the world began welcoming 2025 with spectacular light shows, embraces and ice plunges.
Auckland became the first major city to celebrate, as thousands thronged downtown or climbed the city’s ring of volcanic peaks for a fireworks vantage point. A light display recognized Indigenous people.
Countries in the South Pacific Ocean were the first to ring in the New Year, with midnight in New Zealand striking 18 hours before the ball drop in Times Square in New York.
Conflict muted acknowledgements of the start of 2025 in places like the Middle East, Sudan and Ukraine.
Earliest fireworks
Fireworks blasted off the Sydney Harbor Bridge and across the bay. More than a million Australians and others gathered at iconic Sydney Harbor for the celebration. British pop star Robbie Williams led a singalong with the crowd.
The celebration also featured Indigenous ceremonies and performances that acknowledged the land’s first people.
Asia prepares for Year of the Snake
Much of Japan shut down ahead of the nation’s biggest holiday, as temples and homes underwent a thorough cleaning.
The upcoming Year of the Snake in the Asian zodiac is heralded as one of rebirth — alluding to the reptile’s shedding skin. Other places in Asia will mark the Year of the Snake later, with the Lunar New Year.
In South Korea, celebrations were cut back or canceled during a period of national mourning following Sunday’s crash of a Jeju Air flight in Muan that killed 179 people.
In Thailand’s Bangkok, shopping malls competed for crowds with live musical acts and fireworks shows. A fireworks display in Indonesia’s Jakarta featured 800 drones.
China and Russia exchange goodwill
Chinese state media covered an exchange of New Year’s greetings between leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a reminder of growing closeness between two leaders who face tensions with the West.
Xi told Putin their countries will “always move forward hand in hand,” the official Xinhua News Agency said.
China has maintained ties and robust trade with Russia since the latter invaded Ukraine in 2022, helping to offset Western sanctions and attempts to isolate Putin.
Seaside celebrations and beyond
In India, thousands of revelers in the financial hub of Mumbai flocked to the city’s bustling promenade facing the Arabian Sea. In Sri Lanka, people gathered at Buddhist temples to light oil lamps and incense sticks and pray.
In Dubai, thousands attended a fireworks show at the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper. And in Nairobi, Kenya, scattered fireworks were heard as midnight approached.
A Holy Year begins
Rome’s traditional New Year’s Eve festivities have an additional draw: the start of Pope Francis’ Holy Year, the once-every-quarter-century celebration projected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to the Eternal City in 2025.
On Tuesday, Francis will celebrate a vespers at St. Peter’s Basilica, followed by Mass on Wednesday, when he is expected to again appeal for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Jan. 1 is a day of obligation for Catholics, marking the Solemnity of Mary.
Paris recaptures the Olympic spirit
Paris capped a momentous 2024 with its traditional countdown and fireworks extravaganza on the Champs-Elysées. The city’s emblematic Arc de Triomphe monument was turned into a giant tableau for a light show that celebrated the city’s landmarks and the passage of time, with whirring clocks.
“Paris is a party,” proclaimed Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
The Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games hosted in the French capital from July to September had transformed the city into a site of joy, fraternity and astonishing sporting achievements.
Frank and Rowena Klar from San Francisco visited the French capital to celebrate 31 years together. “If you start it big, we think we’re going to have a great year,” he said.
Wintry weather, for good and bad
London rang in the New Year with a pyrotechnic display along the River Thames. With a storm bringing bitter weather to other parts of the United Kingdom, however, festivities in Edinburgh, Scotland, were canceled.
But in Switzerland and some other places, people embraced the cold, stripping and plunging into the water in freezing temperatures.
Rio expects 2 million revelers
Rio de Janeiro will throw Brazil’s main New Year’s Eve bash on Copacabana Beach, with ferries offshore bearing 12 straight minutes of fireworks. Thousands of tourists in cruise ships will witness the show up close.
More than 2 million people were expected at the Copacabana, hoping to squeeze into concerts by superstar Brazilian artists such as pop singer Anitta and Grammy-award winner Caetano Veloso.
American traditions, old and new
In New York City, the organization managing Times Square has tested its famous ball drop and inspected 2025 numerals, lights and thousands of crystals as part of a tradition going back to 1907. This year’s celebration will include musical performances by TLC, Jonas Brothers, Rita Ora and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
Las Vegas’ pyrotechnic show will be on the Strip, with 340,000 people anticipated as fireworks are launched from the rooftops of casinos. Nearby, the Sphere venue will display for the first time countdowns to midnight in different time zones.
In Pasadena, California, Rose Parade spectators were camping out and hoping for prime spots. And some 200,000 people were flocking to a country music party in Nashville, Tennessee.
American Samoa will be among the last to welcome 2025, a full 24 hours after New Zealand.
US imposes sanctions on Russian and Iranian groups over disinformation targeting American voters
- Authorities say the center used AI to quickly manufacture fake videos about American candidates created scores of fake news websites designed to look legitimate and even paid US web companies to create pro-Russian content
- Russian and Iranian officials have rejected claims that they sought to influence the outcome of the 2024 election
WASHINGTON: The United States has imposed sanctions on two groups linked to Iranian and Russian efforts to target American voters with disinformation ahead of this year’s election.
Treasury officials announced the sanctions Tuesday, alleging that the two organizations sought to stoke divisions among Americans before November’s vote. US intelligence has accused both governments of spreading disinformation, including fake videos, news stories and social media posts, designed to manipulate voters and undermine trust in US elections.
“The governments of Iran and Russia have targeted our election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns,” Bradley T. Smith, Treasury’s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.
Authorities said the Russian group, the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise, oversaw the creation, financing and dissemination of disinformation about American candidates, including deepfake videos created using artificial intelligence.
In addition to the group itself, the new sanctions apply to its director, who authorities say worked closely with Russian military intelligence agents also overseeing cyberattacks and sabotage against the West.
Authorities say the center used AI to quickly manufacture fake videos about American candidates created scores of fake news websites designed to look legitimate and even paid US web companies to create pro-Russian content.
The Iranian group, the Cognitive Design Production Center, is a subsidiary of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, US officials said, which the United States has designated a foreign terrorist organization. Officials say the center worked since at least 2023 to incite political tensions in the United States.
US intelligence agencies have blamed the Iranian government for seeking to encourage protests in the US over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Iran also has been accused of hacking into the accounts of several top current and former US officials, including senior members of Donald Trump’s campaign.
In the months ahead of the election, US intelligence officials said Russia, Iran and China all sought to undermine confidence in US democracy. They also concluded that Russia sought to prop up the ultimate victor Trump, who has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggested cutting funds to Ukraine and repeatedly criticized the NATO military alliance.
Iran, meanwhile, sought to oppose Trump’s candidacy, officials said. The president-elect’s first administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act prompting Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.
Russian and Iranian officials have rejected claims that they sought to influence the outcome of the 2024 election.
“Russia has not and does not interfere with the internal affairs of other countries,” a spokesperson for Russia’s embassy in Washington wrote in an email Tuesday.
A message left with officials from Iran was not immediately returned Tuesday.
Israel says intercepted two projectiles fired from central Gaza
- The military said it has intercepted several rockets fired from northern Gaza in recent days
JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said two projectiles were fired from Gaza on Wednesday in the first minutes of the new year, one of which was intercepted while the other landed in an open area.
Alert sirens sounded around midnight (2200 GMT) in the western Negev, the Israeli military said, and “two projectiles were identified crossing from the central Gaza Strip into Israeli territory.”
“One projectile was successfully intercepted and the second projectile fell in an open area,” the army said on Telegram.
The military said it has intercepted several rockets fired from northern Gaza in recent days.
Since October, Israeli operations in Gaza have focused on the north, with officials saying their land and air offensive aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping.
The Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which resulted in 1,208 deaths — mostly civilians — according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 45,500 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
The UN considers those figures reliable.
New year hope reigns in a Damascus freed from Assad
- More than half a million people died in the 13-year civil war as the country split into different regions controlled by various warring parties
DAMASCUS: Umayyad Square in Damascus hummed to the throngs of people brandishing “revolution” flags as Syria saw in the new year with “hope” following 13 years of civil war.
Gunshots rang out from Mount Qasioun overlooking the capital where hundreds of people gazed up at fireworks, an AFP reporter at the square saw.
It was the first new year’s celebration without an Assad in power for more than 50 years after the fall of Bashar Assad in December.
“Long live Syria, Assad has fallen,” shouted some children.
Despite the revelry, soldiers patrolled the streets of Damascus, less than a month after Assad’s rapid demise.
The green, white and black “revolution” flag with its three red stars flies all over the capital.
Such a sight — the symbol of the Syrian people’s uprising against the Assad dynasty’s iron-fisted rule — was unthinkable a month ago.
The revolutionary song “Lift your head, you are a free Syrian” by Syrian singer Assala Nasri rang out loud on Umayyad Square.
“Every year, we aged suddenly by 10 years,” taxi driver Qassem Al-Qassem, 34, told AFP in reference to the tough living conditions in a country whose economy collapsed under Assad.
“But with the fall of regime, all our fears have dissipated,” he added.
“Now I have a lot of hope. But all we want now is peace.”
More than half a million people died in the 13-year civil war as the country split into different regions controlled by various warring parties.
Many families are still waiting for news of loved ones who disappeared under Assad’s rule, during which time tens of thousands of prisoners disappeared.
“I hope that Syria in 2025 will be non-denominational, pluralist, for everyone, without exception,” said Havan Mohammad, a Kurdish student from the northeast studying pharmacy in the capital.
Woman burned to death in New York subway is identified as 57-year-old from New Jersey
- The woman, Debrina Kawam, had worked at the pharmaceutical giant Merck in from 2000 until 2002, but her life at some point took a rocky turn
- Sebastian Zapeta , 33, has been indicted on murder and arson charges in her Dec. 22 death
NEW YORK: The woman who died after being set on fire in a New York subway train this month was a 57-year-old from New Jersey, police announced Tuesday.
The woman, Debrina Kawam, had worked at the pharmaceutical giant Merck in from 2000 until 2002, but her life at some point took a rocky turn. She had briefly been in a New York homeless shelter after moving to the city recently, the Department of Social Services said. It did not say when.
Police had an address for Kawam in Toms River, a community on the Jersey Shore, and authorities said they notified her family about her Dec. 22 death. The Associated Press left messages Tuesday for possible relatives.
“Hearts go out to the family — a horrific incident to have to live through,” Mayor Eric Adams said at an unrelated news briefing.
It came hours before another harrowing act of violence on the nation’s busiest subway system.
A 45-year-old man was pushed onto the tracks ahead of an oncoming train at a station under Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood about 1:30 p.m., police said. The man was taken to a hospital in critical condition, and police said they had a person of interest in custody.
Personal safety in the subways is generally comparable to safety in the city as a whole. But life-threatening crimes such as stabbings and shoves spread alarm about the trains that have carried more than 1 billion riders over the course of this year.
Police figures show major crimes on subways were down this year through November, compared with the same period last year, but killings rose from five to nine.
In Kawam’s case, prosecutors have said she was asleep on a subway train that was stopped at a station in Brooklyn’s Coney Island when her clothes were set ablaze by a stranger, Sebastian Zapeta.
Zapeta, 33, allegedly fanned the flames with a shirt, engulfing her in the blaze, before sitting on a platform bench and watching as she burned.
Identifying the victim proved to be a challenge, and authorities said Friday that they were still using forensics and video surveillance to trace her.
Zapeta has been indicted on murder and arson charges. He has not entered a plea, and his lawyer has declined to comment outside court.
Federal immigration officials say Zapeta is from Guatemala and entered the US illegally. An address for him given by police matches a shelter that provides housing and substance abuse support.
Zapeta was arrested after police circulated images of a suspect and received a tip from a group of high school students.
Prosecutors have said Zapeta subsequently told police that he was the man in surveillance photos and videos of the fire being ignited, but that he drinks a lot of liquor and does not know what happened.
He is currently jailed, and his next court date is Jan. 7.
While it is not clear why Kawam was asleep in a subway car, New York’s subways often unofficially function as a refuge for homeless people. In theory, legal settlements give homeless individuals a broad right to shelter in the city, but some turn to the trains if they are unable to stay in shelters or fearful about safety in them.
On the morning of the fire, temperatures were around 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 6.5 Celsius) and had been below freezing for 24 hours, according to data from nearby Brooklyn weather stations.
“No matter where she lived, that should not have happened,” the mayor said.
The social services department said it would amplify its efforts to reach and help homeless people on streets and subways and encourage them to use shelters.
