Fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced yesterday on his online Twitter page that he would make a week-long trip to visit three Asian countries.
His visit to Cambodia last month, to take up an economic advisory role with the government, caused a diplomatic row after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen refused to extradite Thaksin to Thailand to serve a two-year jail term for graft.
“I have asked permission to visit and exchange views with three leaders in Asia for seven to eight days,” Thaksin said on his Twitter page, giving no further details.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Friday responded to rumors that Thaksin was planning a return to Cambodia and said the government would probably submit another extradition request if he did so.
“If he enters our airspace we will try to arrest him because he is facing a jail term. We are likely to request for his extradition once again,” Abhisit told reporters.
On Friday, Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni pardoned Thai national Siwarak Chothipong, who had been sentenced to seven years in prison for spying on Thaksin during his visit to Phnom Penh.
The 31-year-old employee at the Cambodia Air Traffic Service will be released from prison on Monday, following his conviction on Tuesday for supplying Thaksin’s flight schedule to the Thai embassy.
The pardon drew immediate praise from the Thai government, which also called the case politically motivated.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese