CAMBODIA
Opposition figure jailed
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday jailed a senior opposition figure for three years over a social media post discussing the disputed history of the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. Thach Setha, a vice president of the opposition Candlelight Party, in January posted a video on Facebook discussing the politically sensitive history of Jan. 7, but his critical comments drew the ire of authorities accusing him of incitement ahead of the July election. The court found Thach Setha guilty of two incitement charges. He was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay a US$1,000 fine, said his lawyer, Sam Sokong. The case can be appealed. In January, Thach Setha was also arrested for allegedly issuing bad checks and received an 18-month jail sentence last month. Government critics say that case was politically motivated, because he was taken into custody ahead of the national election which the ruling party won by a landslide.
UGANDA
Shooters kill tourists, guide
Gunmen killed three people, including two foreigners, in Queen Elizabeth National Park, police said on Tuesday, blaming the attack on a militia group. The trio were driving through the park when they came under attack from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group, which has ties to the Islamic State, police spokesman Fred Enanga said on social media platform X. “The three were killed, and their safari vehicle burnt,” Enanga said. “Our joint forces responded immediately upon receiving the information and are aggressively pursuing the suspected ADF rebels,” he said. Uganda’s wildlife authority identified the victims as a British citizen, a South African and their Ugandan guide. “We urge the public to remain patient and allow the investigative process to run its course,” it said in a statement, adding that all parks would remained open.
BRAZIL
Charge Bolsonaro: court
A congressional committee on Tuesday found that former president Jair Bolsonaro should face charges of an attempted coup for his supporters’ invasion of the presidential palace, Supreme Court and legislative headquarters in January. The committee investigating the Jan. 8 riots in the capital, Brasilia, wrapped up nearly five months of drama-filled hearings with a final report recommending that prosecutors also charge the far-right former president with attempting to overthrow the rule of law, political violence and criminal conspiracy. The report does not legally bind the prosecutor general’s office to act, but it is the latest in a raft of legal woes for Bolsonaro, 68, who is already under investigation for allegations of corruption and abuse of office.
China’s military news agency yesterday warned that Japanese militarism is infiltrating society through series such as Pokemon and Detective Conan, after recent controversies involving events at sensitive sites. In recent days, anime conventions throughout China have reportedly banned participants from dressing as characters from Pokemon or Detective Conan and prohibited sales of related products. China Military Online yesterday posted an article titled “Their schemes — beware the infiltration of Japanese militarism in culture and sports.” The article referenced recent controversies around the popular anime series Pokemon, Detective Conan and My Hero Academia, saying that “the evil influence of Japanese militarism lives on in
DIPLOMATIC THAW: The Canadian prime minister’s China visit and improved Beijing-Ottawa ties raised lawyer Zhang Dongshuo’s hopes for a positive outcome in the retrial China has overturned the death sentence of Canadian Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian official said on Friday, in a possible sign of a diplomatic thaw as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks to boost trade ties with Beijing. Schellenberg’s lawyer, Zhang Dongshuo (張東碩), yesterday confirmed China’s Supreme People’s Court struck down the sentence. Schellenberg was detained on drug charges in 2014 before China-Canada ties nosedived following the 2018 arrest in Vancouver of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟). That arrest infuriated Beijing, which detained two Canadians — Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig — on espionage charges that Ottawa condemned as retaliatory. In January
Two medieval fortresses face each other across the Narva River separating Estonia from Russia on Europe’s eastern edge. Once a symbol of cooperation, the “Friendship Bridge” connecting the two snow-covered banks has been reinforced with rows of razor wire and “dragon’s teeth” anti-tank obstacles on the Estonian side. “The name is kind of ironic,” regional border chief Eerik Purgel said. Some fear the border town of more than 50,0000 people — a mixture of Estonians, Russians and people left stateless after the fall of the Soviet Union — could be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s next target. On the Estonian side of the bridge,
Jeremiah Kithinji had never touched a computer before he finished high school. A decade later, he is teaching robotics, and even took a team of rural Kenyans to the World Robotics Olympiad in Singapore. In a classroom in Laikipia County — a sparsely populated grasslands region of northern Kenya known for its rhinos and cheetahs — pupils are busy snapping together wheels, motors and sensors to assemble a robot. Guiding them is Kithinji, 27, who runs a string of robotics clubs in the area that have taken some of his pupils far beyond the rural landscapes outside. In November, he took a team
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