THAILAND
Insult lands Red Shirt in jail
A court has sentenced a member of the Red Shirt political movement to seven-and-a-half years imprisonment for remarks judged to have insulted the country’s monarchy. The court ruled yesterday that 70-year-old Surachai Danwattananusorn made speeches against the monarchy three times in 2010. Surachai was a communist insurgent in the 1970s and was imprisoned in the 1980s. More recently he has led a faction of the Red Shirts, who took to the streets and clashed with the military in 2010. Thailand’s lese majeste law has come under increasing criticism as a violation of free speech.
CHINA
Pizza chain hurts feelings
A British pizza chain that used “French Concession” to describe its Shanghai location has angered some who believe the term evokes the colonial past, state media said yesterday. Pizza Marzano used the term in promotional materials to describe the location of its third and newest branch in Shanghai, causing a customer to complain, the China Daily newspaper said. China’s vocal bloggers weighed in over the incident after photos of the materials were posted online.
INDIA
Officials fully back gay sex
The government sought to clarify its views on homosexuality yesterday, saying it “fully” backed a 2009 court order decriminalizing gay sex despite the objections of a top state lawyer last week. During a hearing in the Supreme Court on Thursday last week, additional solicitor general P.P. Malhotra had called gay sex “against nature” in a submission that caused outrage among gay rights activists. The home ministry later sought to disown the comments, causing confusion about the government’s stance on the highly sensitive social issue. Yesterday, another additional solicitor general, Mohan Jain, stressed that his views were those of the government, which he said fully supported a Delhi High Court decision in 2009 to decriminalize gay sex.
NEW ZEALAND
Huge penguin fossil found
Scientists said yesterday they have found fossilized remains of one of the largest penguins ever, an “elegant” giant standing 1.3m tall. The penguin lived between 27 million and 24 million years ago, when the north and south islands were mostly underwater and consisted of isolated, rocky outcrops that offered protection from predators and plentiful food supplies, researchers said. The first traces of the penguin, dubbed Kairuku — Maori for diver who returns with food — were found embedded in a cliff at Waimate in the South Island by University of Otago paleontologist professor Ewen Fordyce in 1977.
JAPAN
Police raid N Korean group
Police yesterday raided offices related to a pro-Pyongyang organization in Japan in connection with an investigation into the illegal shipment of computers to North Korea. Backed by 100 riot police, 10 police officers entered the Tokyo offices of an organization connected to the Pyongyang-affiliated General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, Chongryon. The raid came after prosecutors last week indicted Lee Soon-gi, 49, for illegally exporting 100 second-hand personal computers to North Korea through China in 2009, officials and local media said. Japan does not allow exports of luxury goods, including computers, to North Korea as part of a range of sanctions against the regime over North Korea’s abductions of Japanese nationals.
‘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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in