奥地利随时准备实施新的边界控制措施
奥地利星期二说,如果德国政府实施星期一宣布的更严格的移民限制,奥地利也准备采取保护边界的措施。奥地利没有具体说明什么样的措施。
奥地利政府的一份声明说,它准备采取边界保护措施,尤其是在南部边界。奥地利南部与意大利和斯洛文尼亚接壤。
德国的执政联盟在移民问题上存在内部分歧。默克尔的政党主张对移民采取更欢迎的立场,但是巴伐利亚的联盟伙伴提出,应该对允许什么人进入德国采取更严格的限制。
这个分歧一度看来要迫使默克尔试图组成新的执政联盟,或宣布提前举行大选。但是经过数小时的谈判后,默克尔和基督教社会联盟领导人、内政部长泽霍夫说,他们就一项双方都可接受的协议达成了一致。
根据这项协议,要设立一些中转中心,在对庇护寻求者进行甄别的时候临时把他们安置在那里。如果发现有人已经在欧盟其它国家申请庇护,就将他们送到申请国,或送去奥地利,不过能否送去奥地利还取决于能否与奥地利政府达成协议。
Austria Prepared For New Border Measures
Austria said Tuesday it is ready to implement unspecified border protections if Germany enacts a set of stricter immigration controls its government announced Monday.
An Austrian government statement said it is "prepared in particular to take measures to protect our southern borders," which include those with Italy and Slovenia.
Germany's ruling coalition has been divided on the issue of immigration, with Chancellor Angela Merkel's party advocating a more welcoming stance while her Bavarian coalition partner argued for stricter controls over who is allowed into the country.
The divide threatened to push Merkel to seek a new coalition or call new elections. But after hours of negotiations, she and Christian Social Union leader and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer both said they had agreed on a plan that worked for both sides.
The agreement calls for establishing transit centers to hold asylum-seekers while their cases are evaluated. If they are found to have already applied for asylum in a different European Union country they would be sent back to that country, or to Austria, pending agreement with the Austrian government.
缅甸法院即将决定在押路透社记者的命运
缅甸一家法院下星期将裁决为路透社工作的两位新闻记者是否将面临审判。这两名记者报道了罗兴亚人的危机,被指违反了缅甸的保密法。
32岁的瓦龙(Wa Lone)和28岁的觉梭(Kyaw Soe Oo)被指违反缅甸的“官方保密法”,最多可被判处14年徒刑。
这两人去年12月被逮捕以来一直在押。他们被指控持有与若开邦危机中一次军事镇压有关的被泄露的秘密材料。在缅甸人口占少数的罗兴亚穆斯林居住在若开邦。
瓦龙和觉梭的被捕引发国际人权组织的猛烈批评。
被告律师团在星期一的预审庭议上要求法官取消指控,因为检控方未能提供证明他们违法的足够证据。
这两名记者在仰光北部与两名他们说以前从未谋面的警察会面。他们后来对亲属说,他们刚拿到一些文件就被立即逮捕。
人权观察再次呼吁释放这两名记者。
路透社总裁兼总编阿德勒说,这个案件现在处于一个“至关重要的十字路口”。
阿德勒在一份声明中说:“在任何民主体制中,新闻自由都不可或缺。如果没有证明有违法行为的证据就起诉瓦龙和觉梭,就会严重破坏缅甸宪法对新闻自由的保护。”
Myanmar Judge to Decide Fate of Jailed Journalists
A court in Myanmar will rule next week whether two journalists for the Reuters news agency will face trial for allegedly breaking the country's secrecy laws by reporting on the Rohingya crisis.
Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, are accused of breaching the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
The pair has been held in custody since their arrest in December and are accused of being in possession of leaked sensitive material linked to a military crackdown in crisis-hit Rakhine state, home to Myanmar's minority Muslim Rohingya population.
Their detention has prompted an outcry among international human rights groups.
Defense lawyers asked the judge at a pretrial hearing Monday to drop the charges, saying the prosecution had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove their case.
The reporters were meeting with two police officers they say they had never met before in northern Yangon. The men later told relatives that as soon as they were handed some papers, they were arrested almost immediately.
Human Rights Watch again called for the release of the journalists.
Reuters President and Editor-in-Chief Stephen Adler said this was a "critical juncture" in the case.
"Freedom of the press is essential in any democracy, and to charge Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo under these circumstances, without any proof of their having done anything unlawful, would seriously undermine Myanmar's constitutional guarantee of free speech," Adler said in a statement.