THAILAND
Royal insult man pardoned
A Thai man who was serving a 13-year term for posting online content deemed offensive to the kingdom’s monarchy said on Friday he had been given a royal pardon and released from prison. Thantawut Thaweewarodomkul, a former administrator of the Nor Por Chor USA Web site, which has links to the “Red Shirt” protest movement, was convicted under controversial lese majeste and computer crime laws. “I was in there for three years, three months and five days. I am a bit confused by the outside world after getting used to being behind the [prison] wall,” the 41-year-old said after he was released from the high-security Bangkok Remand Prison. Under the controversial lese majeste rules, anyone convicted of insulting the Thai king, queen, heir or regent faces up to 15 years in prison on each count. The royal family is a highly sensitive subject in politically turbulent Thailand. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 85, is revered by many Thais, but has been in hospital since September 2009. Thantawut said last year that prison officials had ordered other inmates to beat him during his time in prison. Rights campaigners say the lese majeste law has been politicized, noting that many of those charged are linked to the Red Shirts, who are loyal to ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
NIGERIA
Thirty killed in school attack
Islamic extremists have killed 29 students and one teacher in an attack on a boarding school in the northeast of the country. Survivors being treated for burns and gunshots wounds say some students were burned alive in the attack before dawn yesterday on Government Secondary School in the town of Mamudo in Yobe state. As he wept over the bodies of his two boys, farmer Malam Abdullahi swore he would withdraw three remaining sons from a nearby school. He complained there was no protection for students despite the deployment of thousands of troops since the government declared a state of emergency in mid-May in three northeastern states.
IRAQ
Grandpa weds 22-year-old
A 92-year-old farmer married a woman 70 years his junior in a village north of Baghdad, he said on Friday, voicing happiness at getting hitched alongside two teenage grandchildren who also tied the knot. Musali Mohammed al-Mujamaie married 22-year-old Muna Mukhlif al-Juburi on Thursday evening, three years after the death of his first wife of 58 years, with whom he raised 16 children in his home village of Gubban, which lies just south of the central city of Samarra. “I am so happy to get married with my grandsons,” Mujamaie said after the ceremony. “I feel like a 20-year-old!” Mujamaie said the marriage of his two grandsons, aged 16 and 17, was repeatedly delayed while his own wedding was being arranged, so that the three could tie the knot on the same day.
COLOMBIA
Mafia boss caught: official
Police on Friday arrested an alleged boss of Italy’s Calabrian mafia, who is considered the most wanted drug trafficker in Europe, the defense ministry said. Roberto Pannunzi, who is wanted in Italy on drug trafficking charges, was detained in a Bogota shopping center with the help of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the ministry said in a statement. “When he was captured, Pannunzi identified himself with a fake Venezuelan identification card bearing the name Silvano Martino,” it said. The statement said Pannunzi is the “chief of the ’Ndrangheta criminal organization.”
‘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
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
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