■THAILAND
Royal pardon submitted
Bangkok prison authorities submitted a request for a royal pardon for Australian Harry Nicolaides, who is serving a three-year prison sentence for lese majeste, officials confirmed yesterday. “We very recently submitted his relatives’ request for a royal pardon to the Corrections Departments,” said a Bangkok Remand Center official, who required anonymity. If the department accepts the request, it will forward it to the Royal Household for consideration. “The process will take months,” he said. On Jan. 19 the Bangkok Criminal Court sentenced Nicolaides, 41, to three years in prison for insulting the monarchy in his novel Verisimilitude, which sold only seven copies. Three years’ imprisonment is the minimum sentence under the country’s harsh lese majeste law. The maximum sentence under the law, which makes it a criminal offense to insult or belittle the Thai monarchy and royal family, is 15 years’ imprisonment.
■SOUTH KOREA
President fears armed clash
President Lee Myung-bak chaired a top-level security meeting yesterday amid growing fears of an armed clash with North Korea, the defense ministry said. It was the first time for five years that the president has headed such a meeting, which drew about 200 top military, intelligence, law enforcement and local government officials yesterday. Concerns are rising that Pyongyang, after months of threats against Seoul’s conservative government, will trigger a clash along the disputed western sea border. The area around the border known as the Northern Limit Line (NLL) was the scene of deadly naval clashes in 1999 and 2002. Last month Pyongyang declared that all its peace pacts with Seoul were void including a 1991 agreement to recognize the NLL as an interim border.
■SOUTH KOREA
Nation mourns cardinal
Seoul yesterday mourned the death of the country’s first Roman Catholic cardinal, “the conscience of an era” who played a key role in helping the nation transform into a genuine democracy. Throngs visited Seoul’s Myeongdong Cathedral to pay final respects to Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, who died on Monday at the age of 86. Local TV footage showed mourners praying or bowing in front of a glass case in which Kim, dressed in Catholic vestments and a miter, was laid. His body was to be placed in a wooden coffin before a funeral Mass on Friday, the Archdiocese of Seoul said. Many others waited in a long line outside the church despite freezing temperatures. Among the visitors were former president Kim Dae-jung, a Catholic who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to improve ties with Pyongyang, archdiocese official Lee Hee-yeon said.
■SRI LANKA
Tigers lash out at UN
Tamil Tiger rebels lashed out at the UN yesterday after it accused them of shooting civilians who tried to escape the bloody ethnic conflict. The UN said the Tigers have detained tens of thousands of non-combatants inside rebel-held territory and have “shot and sometimes killed” those crossing the battle lines to seek safety. A front organization for the rebels, who have been cornered in the jungle by government troops, countered the allegations by saying the UN had failed in its duty to protect innocent civilians. The UN was “withdrawing even the remaining few local staff from the conflict zone [and] completely shedding its responsibility of caring for the civilians trapped here,” the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation said.
RSS