The Bangladesh army said Monday that it has killed all four militants believed to have seized a building in an eastern city four days ago with a large cache of ammunition.

Army spokesman Brig. Gen. Mohammad Fakhrul Ahsan said two bodies were found in the building Monday in addition to six people, including two policemen, who were killed in explosions near it earlier.

Ahsan said the army found a huge amount of explosives inside the building, and two of the four insurgents killed had jackets lined with explosives on them.

Army and paramilitary troops had been trying since Friday to flush the militants out of the building in the city of Sylhet. The army operation was codenamed “Operation Twilight.”

The six people killed Saturday died after a series of explosions took place on a road near an Islamic religious school and close to the building under siege. At least 25 people were wounded in the attacks and 78 civilians were rescued from the building after troops broke a section of the compound wall where the building is located, the army spokesman said.

Several explosions occurred in the area, including a large blast Sunday afternoon. Police barred civilians, including journalists, from the area.

The gunbattle with suspected militants came after a man killed himself Friday by detonating explosives near a police post on a busy road near the airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital. No one else was hurt.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Sylhet and Dhaka, according to the SITE Intelligence group, citing the Islamic State news agency Amaq. SITE monitors terror group activity online.

Bangladesh has experienced a renewed level of Islamic militancy in recent years. Dozens of atheists, liberal writers, bloggers and publishers, as well as members of minority communities and foreigners, have been targeted and killed.

Last July, 17 foreigners were killed when five militants stormed a restaurant in Dhaka’s upscale diplomatic zone.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks, but Bangladesh’s government has consistently denied the presence of the militant group in the impoverished South Asian nation, and says the attacks are the work of local radical groups.
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The global trend in counterfeiting and piracy is forecast to increase during the decade with China at the heart of production of fake goods from clothes to electronics, and risky fake medicines and cosmetics.

But governments and businesses are looking to challenge the commercial threats posed by counterfeiting with steps to detect fake goods and protect brands and jobs.

A report commissioned by the International Trademark Association (INTA) and the International Chamber of Commerce, said the global economic value of counterfeiting and piracy could reach $2.3 trillion by 2022. The global value of the counterfeit market in 2015 stood at $1.7 trillion.

The February 2017 report, by research firm Frontier Economics, said the wider social, investment and criminal enforcement costs could take the total to $4.2 trillion, leaving at risk about 5.4 million “legitimate jobs”.

Analysts say while counterfeiting and fraud have been a part of commercial life, the quickening pace of fake products has come with the globalization of business.

Plague on world economy

A recent report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime says “counterfeit goods and fraudulent medicines pose a serious risk to public health and safety”.

The goods range from automotive supplies, to chemicals and pesticides, consumer electronics, electrical components, food, drink and agricultural products.

While deaths and sickness have been reported from key foods such as baby milk powder in Asia, the full human toll as a result of fake mechanical, food and medicines is unclear.

China said to be at center

The UNODC and the World Customs Organization estimate 75 percent of counterfeit products seized worldwide in 2010 were manufactured in East Asia, mostly in China.

Australia-based product security firm, YPB Group executive chairman, John Houston, says the “problem [of counterfeiting] essentially is in China”.

“The Chinese counterfeiter can now copy the best packaging, they actually put holograms on things that the original brand owner doesn’t have a hologram on, to create the aura of authenticity,” Houston said.

“So what you need is a traceable, identifiable, authenticable technology in products and you would be absolutely amazed how little there is in the world,” he said.

The UNODC says India and China are the largest sources of fraudulent medicines, with China the lead “departure point” of nearly 60 percent of counterfeit medical products seized globally.

But even as China takes steps to crack down on counterfeit medicines, “key aspects of production” are likely to move elsewhere, including to North Korea, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Major problem

The major driver of the sales of counterfeit goods has come through e-commerce and major online distribution channels. In December the United States placed China’s Alibaba Group on a ‘counterfeit goods watch list’.

Since then Alibaba, the $270 billion e-commerce powerhouse, led by chief executive Jack Ma, said it was taking steps to crackdown on counterfeit sellers on its network, including a digital ledger system designed to track genuine food products through a supply chain.

Alibaba also called on China’s authorities to introduce tougher laws, stricter enforcement and stiffer penalties to crackdown on producers of counterfeit goods in China. The company blamed China’s “ambiguous counterfeiting laws” that hampered authorities’ ability to build legal cases against counterfeiters.

Steps by Alibaba, included the taking down of 380 million product listings and the shutdown of 180,000 Taobao stores, and 675 operators as a result of anti-counterfeiting measures.

Countries fighting back

Governments are also taking action against elements in the counterfeiting trade. Thailand regularly carries out high profile raids on counterfeit goods’ suppliers and well publicized destruction of the goods.

In Cambodia, where the key health challenge is counterfeit medicines, the Interior Ministry recently said it had closed down over 60 illegal pharmacies, as well measures to curb production of fake currencies, notably U.S. dollars.

In Vietnam, faced with a “tidal wave” of counterfeit cosmetics flooding the market, the Health Department of Medicine Management suspended the distribution of more than 30 beauty products.

Businesses in Vietnam have also complained that fake products from China were costing the firms “hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in lost revenue”.

Anti-counterfeiting measures

YPB’s Houston said there is increasing demand for technologies to thwart counterfeiting or forgery, especially with issues of cross border migration and terrorism in many parts of the world.

A report by MarketsandMarkets.com said the value of anti-counterfeiting packaging is set to reach $153.95 billion by 2020, from $82.05 billion in 2015.

Houston said Asian governments were looking to anti-counterfeiting technology realizing “the burden and loss of revenue that counterfeit and the black economy place on developing economies.”
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Hong Kong has selected Carrie Lam to be the city’s first-ever female chief executive, sealing an election that many saw as a foregone conclusion and not a democratic race.  In her victory speech Sunday, Lam pledged to mend political rifts across the city’s political spectrums.  But her victory is largely shunned by the city’s democracy activists, who say it signals an alarming defeat for public opinion.  Joyce Huang has more for VOA from Hong Kong.
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Nine Hong Kong activists were informed Monday that they will be arrested for their involvement in the student protests of the Umbrella Movement of 2014 and charged with creating a public nuisance.

The news of their pending arrests comes one day after veteran civil servant Carrie Lam was selected by a pro-China election committee to become Hong Kong’s first female chief executive.

Democracy activists are concerned about Lam’s win and her pro-China tendencies. They are leery of China’s growing interference in Hong Kong and fearful of losing the former British colony’s “one country, two systems” formula that guarantees Hong Kong wide-ranging freedoms.

Lam said Sunday Hong Kong “is suffering from quite a serious divisiveness and has accumulated a lot of frustrations.” She said her “priority will be to heal the divide.”

Activist Raphael Wong told the French news agency, AFP, he had been notified he would receive the public nuisance charge for his role in the protests.

“As Carrie Lam talks about unity, they are saying you don’t need it,” Wong said.

Civic Party lawmaker Tanya Chan, also notified about the public nuisance charge that carries a maximum seven-year sentence, said the timing undermines Lam’s unity pledge. She also described the move as a “death kiss” from outgoing chief executive Leung Chun-ying who steps down in July.

Others targeted for arrest include university professors, former student leaders, and current and former pro-democracy lawmakers.

Tens of thousands of student protesters took to the streets in 2014 in what became known as the Umbrella Movement to demand full democracy for Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s chief is elected by a committee of 1,200 that includes tycoons and lawmakers, leaving millions of residents unable to vote for their leader.

The 59-year-old Lam’s victory with 777 votes was no surprise since Beijing had lobbied heavily for her. She was Hong Kong’s number two official before Sunday’s vote.
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Hong Kong police on Monday told at least nine organizers of 2014’s pro-democracy demonstrations they will face charges, protest leaders said, an ominous sign just a day after a new Beijing-backed leader was chosen, vowing to unite society.

The move, which has already provoked anger and disbelief among democrats, heightened political tension in the Chinese-ruled city, with a protest rally to be held outside police headquarters in the Wanchai bar district on Monday night.

Former chief secretary Carrie Lam was chosen by a 1,200-person committee to lead the city, pledging in her victory speech to unite political divisions that have hindered policy-making and legislative work.

But the timing of the telephone calls, almost 2½ years after the protests brought parts of the city to a standstill for months, is unlikely to help heal wounds.

Sociology professor Chan Kin-man, one of the core protest leaders, said police told him he would be charged with three crimes, including participating and inciting others to participate in “public nuisance”.

“I am already mentally prepared for this, but I am very worried about Hong Kong’s future,” Chan told Reuters.

It wasn’t immediately clear why authorities had waited so long to pursue the charges. The police did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Asked by reporters about the timing, Lam said she couldn’t intervene with prosecutions carried out by the administration of incumbent leader Leung Chun-ying.

“I made it very clear that I want to unite society and bridge the divide that has been causing us concern, but all these actions should not compromise the rule of law in Hong Kong and also the independent prosecution process that I have just mentioned,” said Lam, who will take office on July 1. Chan, however, disputed this.

“The message is strong. Carrie Lam said she wanted to mend the society, but the message we got today is prosecution. I don’t see how the society’s cracks can be mended,” Chan told Reuters.

Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997, with the promise of a high degree of autonomy and other freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland, but Communist Party rulers in Beijing never hid their anger at the protests which they deemed illegal.

Lawmaker Tanya Chan said at least nine protest leaders including herself received calls from the police notifying them of their charges.

Another protest leader, University of Hong Kong law professor, Benny Tai, confirmed to Reuters by text he had been contacted by police.

Lam met with incumbent leader Leung Chun-ying earlier on Monday. They shook hands and both expressed confidence in a “smooth and effective” leadership transition.

Lam was Leung’s deputy as chief secretary for the past five years and is known as a tough, though competent administrator.

The next few months will be critical for Leung and Lam, with Chinese President Xi Jinping expected to pay a visit on July 1 to celebrate Hong Kong’s 20th anniversary of the handover, with large protests expected.

Part of the public mistrust towards Lam stems from her close working relationship with the staunchly pro-Beijing Leung, who protesters say ordered the firing of tear gas on protesters in 2014.

Balance

All of Hong Kong’s three other post-handover leaders have struggled to balance the demands of China’s stability-obsessed Communist Party leaders, with the wish of many residents to preserve the global financial hub’s liberal values and rule of law that have long underpinned its economic success.

“She has been elected pretty much solely on the support of Beijing,” said political scientist Ma Ngok.

“If that’s the case, she might have a lot of debts that she has to repay to her supporters in Beijing.”

Student activist Joshua Wong, 20, one of the leaders of the student-led “Umbrella Movement” protests in 2014, said last week Lam’s victory was “a nightmare” for Hong Kong.

“Theoretically, the chief executive is a bridge between the central government and the Hong Kong people,” he said. “But Lam will be a tilted bridge. She will only tell us what Beijing wants and won’t reflect what the people want to the communist regime.”
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An academic at an Australian university has been prevented by Chinese authorities from returning to Sydney because he’s suspected of endangering national security, his lawyer said Sunday.

Border officials at an airport in the southern city of Guangzhou refused to let Feng Chongyi, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney, catch his flight home on Friday and Saturday, according to Feng’s lawyer, Chen Jinxue.

“He has no way of leaving China right now,” Chen said.

Officials have not said why they suspect Feng of “endangering national security,” Chen said, but it could be related to his research on human rights lawyers. Feng had been wrapping up a three-week trip researching that topic.

State security officials met with Feng at his hotel in Guangzhou and asked him during a two-hour conversation who he met with in China and in Australia in the course of his research, Chen said.

Chinese authorities have staged a wide-reaching crackdown on human rights lawyers across the country since July 2015, accusing such attorneys of being a threat to national security.

The chief justice said earlier this month that convictions of a prominent defense attorney and his associates caught up in the crackdown were among the country’s top legal achievements last year. Others have also been arrested and accused of subversion or endangering state security.

Rights groups and Western governments including the U.S. have urged China to release the activists and lawyers detained in the crackdown, while critics have said the campaign is aimed at silencing opponents of the ruling Communist Party.

Feng had been studying the crackdown closely, Chen said.

China’s Ministry of Public Security and authorities in Guangzhou did not respond to repeated calls and faxed requests for comment.

Feng is a permanent resident in Australia but had entered China on his Chinese passport, Chen said. This implies that in this case, Chinese authorities regard Feng as a Chinese citizen and therefore not entitled to Australian consular support.

However, the academic is not being formally detained and has not been arrested, his lawyer said.

The incident comes as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang wrapped up a five-day trip to Australia, where the two countries sought to boost trade ties. Li was scheduled to fly to New Zealand on Sunday.
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