UNITED KINGDOM
Briton guilty of murder
The Phuket provincial court yesterday sentenced a British kickboxer to 25 years in jail for the 2010 murder of a former US marine on the resort island. The court found Lee Aldhouse guilty of stabbing to death Dashawn Longfellow after being beaten by the American during a brawl at a Phuket bar. The court reduced Aldhouse’s sentence from a life sentence because he pleaded guilty. Aldhouse was a semi-professional kickboxer who fought under the nickname “Pitbull.” He had been living on-and-off in Phuket, where Longfellow was also studying the sport. Aldhouse was extradited to Thailand last year in the first case of extradition of a criminal suspect from England to Thailand.
MYANMAR
Independence fighter dies
The last member of the legendary “Thirty Comrades” — the group that spearheaded the struggle against British colonialism — has died. Ye Htut, 91, died of old age at a hospital in Yangon, family members said. The Thirty Comrades were led by General Aung San, father of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. During World War II, they went to Japan for training to fight British colonizers in what was then known as Burma. Aung San later negotiated independence from Britain, but was assassinated before it happened in 1948. Ye Htut served in the Burmese army before independence, but went underground and joined the banned Burma Communist Party in 1948. He was involved in the 1988 pro-democracy movement.
AUSTRALIA
Suu Kyi meets Abbott
Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi met with Prime Minister Tony Abbott yesterday as she travels the country seeking backing for changes to Myanmar’s constitution, which currently prevents her from becoming president. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate met with Abbott and later spoke to journalists about her fight for fair elections. “We are just starting out on the road to democracy,” she said. “Without amendments to the constitution, we can never become a truly democratic society.” Abbott voiced his support for “free and fair elections in Burma,” adding that “they should be conducted on the proverbial level playing field.”
IRAN
More low-enriched uranium
Tehran plans to increase its production of uranium enriched at a low level, its official news agency reported yesterday. IRNA quoted nuclear department head Ali Akbar Salehi as saying that machines that were earlier producing 20 percent enriched uranium would be engaged in producing low-level enriched uranium. “Hence, the production of 5 percent enriched uranium will increase,” he said, while production of “20 percent enriched uranium will halt.”
INDIA
‘Tehelka’ managing ed quits
The managing editor of the investigative magazine Tehelka resigned yesterday after coming under fire over her handling of allegations that the publication’s founder sexually assaulted a young reporter. In an e-mail to staff, Shoma Chaudhury denied being part of a “cover-up” to protect Tehelka’s founder and editor Tarun Tejpal, who is under investigation over claims he sexually assaulted the woman in a hotel in the state of Goa. However, Chaudhury, who announced last week that Tejpal was standing aside for six months over what he has described as “a bad lapse of judgement,” acknowledged that “she could have done many things differently.” The alleged victim has resigned from the magazine.
CANADA
Aid for US spies: report
Canada allowed the US National Security Agency to conduct widespread surveillance during the 2010 Group of 20 summit in Toronto, according to a Canadian Broadcasting Corp report that cited documents from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The report by CBC News on Wednesday cited briefing notes it said showed the US turned its Ottawa embassy building into a security command post during a six-day spying operation by the top-secret US agency as US President Barack Obama and other world leaders met that June. Reuters has not seen the documents and cannot verify their authenticity. The report said the operation was no secret to authorities, with an NSA briefing note describing the operation as “closely coordinated with the Canadian partner.”
UNITED STATES
Storm fears ease for east
A wet and windy storm hit the east coast on one of the busiest holiday travel days of the year, but it was not the disaster that many had feared. Flight cancelations piled up at hubs such as New York’s LaGuardia Airport, Philadelphia and Newark, and by midday on Wednesday about 250 flights had been canceled, according to the tracking Web site FlightAware.com. That was a tiny fraction of the nearly 32,000 flights that were scheduled to, from or within the US on Wednesday, the Web site said.
RUSSIA
Former minister charged
The main investigative agency has filed charges against former minister of defense Anatoly Serdyukov, accusing him of using servicemen and government funds to build a road to a vacation home and do landscaping work on the property. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison. President Vladimir Putin fired Serdyukov a year ago over a corruption scandal, but most military experts believed his ouster reflected a behind-the-scenes power struggle. Serdyukov had overseen a radical defense reform that drastically cut the numbers of officers.
UNITED NATIONS
Militant group blacklisted
The Security Council has blacklisted an al-Qaeda-affiliated militant and his network for allegedly being linked to the attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. The council’s antiterrorism committee has listed Muhammad Jamal and his Muhammad Jamal Network for running camps in Libya to train foreign militants and for being “reportedly involved in the attack on the US Mission in Benghazi” on Sept. 11 last year, according to Australian ambassador Gary Quinlan, the chairman of the committee. The Security Council reviewed the work of its al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee on Wednesday.
HONG KONG
Auction raises ire
A south London council raised millions of pounds on Wednesday after controversially selling Chinese antique ceramic items at a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong. The collection, including vases, bowls and boxes, fetched a total of HK$102.4 million (US$13.2 million) for Croydon Council — with a blue-and-white Ming Dynasty moonflask the most expensive item at HK$28.1 million. The auction was opposed by Britain’s Museums Association, which described it as a “breach of the code of ethics.” The council resigned from the Museums Association, which in turn barred Croydon from future membership. Park Sung-hee, a spokeswoman for Christie’s, said the proceeds would be used to improve the borough’s cultural amenities.
‘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