UNITED NATIONS
New chief nominated
The Security Council on Thursday unanimously nominated former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres to be the next secretary-general, recommending that the 193-member General Assembly appoint him for five years from Jan. 1 next year. The General Assembly is likely to meet next week to approve the appointment of Guterres, 67, who would replace Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, 72, of South Korea. Ban is to step down at the end of this year after serving two terms. “I have two words to describe what I’m feeling now: gratitude and humility,” Guterres said in a short statement in Lisbon, which he repeated in various languages. “Humility [is what I feel] about the huge challenges ahead of us, the terrible complexity of the modern world.
BRAZIL
Lula to be investigated
Former president Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva will be probed for alleged membership in a crime ring organizing the mass looting of the state oil company Petrobras, the Supreme Court said on Thursday. Justice Teori Zavascki authorized the inclusion of Lula, who already faces other related corruption charges, in a group of politicians suspected of organizing an embezzlement ring at Petrobras. Prosecutors had previously named Lula, 70, as the mastermind of the huge corruption scheme in which a network of executives, politicians and big contractors plundered Brazil’s flagship national company. The probe into the scheme has already seen a who’s who of Brazilians investigated, charged or convicted, shaking the country’s elite to the core. However, no concrete evidence has been presented so far of Lula’s role as the ringleader.
UNITED STATES
Backpage CEO arrested
State agents have raided the Dallas, Texas, offices of adult classified ad portal Backpage and arrested chief executive officer Carl Ferrer following allegations that adult and child sex trafficking victims were forced into prostitution through escort ads posted on the Web site. Fifty-five-year-old Ferrer was arrested on a California warrant after arriving on Thursday in Houston on a flight from Amsterdam. Authorities also issued warrants for the arrest of the site’s controlling shareholders, 68-year-old Michael Lacey and 67-year-old James Larkin. California Attorney General Kamala Harris said Ferrer was arrested on felony charges of pimping a minor, pimping and conspiracy to commit pimping. Under California law, pimping is defined as making money off prostitutes or soliciting customers for prostitution.
COLOMBIA
Rebels release politician
The country’s second-largest rebel group has taken another step in the direction of peace talks with the government by freeing a politician after holding him more than three months. Fabio Ardila, a former mayor in eastern Colombia, was handed over to the International Red Cross on Thursday. His release by the National Liberation Army comes a week after the rebels freed a rice farmer in the same area near the Venezuelan border. President Juan Manuel Santos praised the release, saying it brings the two sides closer to initiating peace talks that were announced in March, but are frozen over the government’s insistence the group releases all captives. The move comes as a peace deal with the much-larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia is in limbo following its defeat in a referendum.
NIGER
Refugee camp attacked
At least 22 soldiers were killed on Thursday when unknown assailants attacked a camp for Malian refugees, the West African nation’s Prime Minister Brigi Rafini said. The attack targeted a camp in the village of Tassalit in the country’s Tahoua region, about 525km northeast of the capital Niamey. “We received information of an attack on the camp in Tassalit. For the moment we are told there are 22 dead, but that is not a total death toll,” he said in comments broadcast on state-run television TeleSahel. Rafini gave no further information concerning the suspected identities of the attackers or whether any civilians had been killed or wounded. The camp’s residents are Malians who fled to neighboring Niger after Muslim militants, some with links to al-Qaeda, seized Mali’s desert north in 2012.
CAMBODIA
Opposition snubs parliament
The country’s opposition party unexpectedly failed to attend the reopening of parliament, setting back hopes of a political truce with the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Cambodia National Rescue Party spokesman Yim Sovann yesterday that the opposition party felt they were under threat of physical intimidation, recalling that its lawmakers had previously been beaten up by a pro-government mob. The opposition had recently said it would rejoin the parliamentary session after some conciliatory words and gestures by both sides. The party stopped attending the parliamentary sessions about four months ago after lawmakers of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party stripped some opposition lawmakers of their legal immunity.
GHANA
Statue prompts controversy
A statue of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi might be removed from a university in Accra, with officials citing controversy over what critics call his “racist identity.” Professors at the University of Ghana last month launched a petition calling for the removal of the statue, which was unveiled by Indian President Pranab Mukherjee during a visit in June. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government “would ... want to relocate the statue from the University of Ghana to ensure its safety.” However, Obadele Kambon, one of the petition’s organizers, on Thursday said there was no confirmation the statue would be removed. He also said simply moving the statue to another location in Ghana would be insufficient. He urged the government to send it back to India. “We do not think the statue would be well received anywhere in Ghana,” he said. Gandhi, a lawyer, traveled to South Africa in 1893 and stayed for two decades, fighting to expand rights for Indians there. The petition quotes writings from that period in which he refers to black South Africans as savages.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia