PHILIPPINES
Duterte critic acquitted
A former opposition senator and justice secretary was acquitted of drug charges yesterday after key witnesses recanted and said they had lied about her involvement in narcotics trafficking. However, Leila de Lima, 63, remained jailed, as she has one outstanding charge against her. De Lima has been detained since 2017 on drug charges she says were fabricated by the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte in an attempt to muzzle her criticism of its deadly crackdown on illegal drugs. The campaign left thousands of mostly petty suspects dead and sparked an International Criminal Court investigation as a possible crime against humanity. Duterte, who has insisted on De Lima’s guilt, left office last year.
THAILAND
Army head pledges no coup
Army Commander-in-Chief General Narongpan Jitkaewthae has pledged not to stage a coup, as political parties geared up for final campaign rallies yesterday ahead of an election tomorrow that could see the military-backed government voted out. Narongpan made the pledge despite the army seizing power a dozen times in Thailand in the past century, most recently in 2014. Voters are predicted to deliver a heavy defeat to the military-backed administration of prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, fueling fears that the military might seek to cling on to power. Narongpan told reporters on Thursday that there would be no return to military rule, saying that the coups of the past were “very negative... There shouldn’t be [a coup] any more.”
TURKEY
Candidate pans Russia
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the main election rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, issued a warning to Russia, accusing it of responsibility for the release of fake material on social media ahead of tomorrow’s election. Kilicdaroglu, who has a slight lead over long-time leader Erdogan according to opinion polls, did not specify to which material he meant. A third presidential candidate, Muharrem Ince, withdrew from the race on Thursday citing a faked “character assassination.” Kilicdaroglu accused Turkey’s “Russian friends” of responsibility for “the release in this country yesterday of montages, plots, deep fake content.” He said that “if you want to continue our friendship after May 15, withdraw your hand from the Turkish state. We are still in favor of cooperation and friendship.”
ASIA
Cyclone to make landfall
Authorities in Bangladesh and Myanmar prepared to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people yesterday, warning them to stay away from coastal areas as Cyclone Mocha churned in the Bay of Bengal. The storm is expected to roar in tomorrow with sustained wind speeds of up to 160kph, gusting to 175kph between Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh and Kyaukpyu in Myanmar, the India Meteorological Department said. Bangladesh is a delta nation of more than 160 million people and is prone to natural disasters such as floods and cyclones. Evacuation of nearly 500,000 people is expected to start today with 576 cyclone shelters ready to provide refuge to those moved from their homes along a vast coast. “This is the first cyclone system in the north Indian Ocean this year,” department senior scientist Rajendra Kumar Jenamani said. “The cyclone is severe and will likely affect millions of fishers and coastal communities in Bangladesh and Myanmar.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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