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BANGKOK, July 26, 2023 (AFP) – Thailand’s billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will return to the kingdom on August 10 after 15 years in self-exile, his daughter said Wednesday. The 74-year-old tycoon, twice elected premier but ousted by a military coup in 2006, has long spoken of his wish to come home, but faces multiple criminal charges, which he says are politically motivated. Thaksin is a bogeyman for Thailand’s pro-military and royalist establishment and […]
GENEVA, July 26, 2023 (AFP) – The United Nations on Wednesday said Cambodia’s general elections were held in a severely restricted environment surrounded by threats and intimidation that created a chilling effect. UN human rights chief Volker Turk slammed the circumstances behind Sunday’s vote as the victor, Prime Minister Hun Sen, announced he would resign and hand power to his eldest son after almost four decades of hardline rule. Turk said the elections were conducted […]
PHNOM PENH, July 26, 2023 (AFP) – Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, one of the world’s longest-serving leaders, said Wednesday he will resign and hand power to his eldest son after almost four decades of hardline rule. The former Khmer Rouge cadre has run the kingdom since 1985, eliminating all opposition to his power, with rival parties banned, challengers forced to flee and freedom of expression stifled. His Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won a landslide […]
HONG KONG, July 24, 2023 (AFP) – Hong Kong national security police on Monday took in family members of businessman-turned-activist Elmer Yuen for questioning, one of the eight fugitives with bounties on their heads for allegedly breaching national security. The city announced this month that eight pro-democracy activists, all of whom now live overseas, are wanted for national security crimes, and offered rewards of HK$1 million ($128,000) for each of them. Since then, the […]
PHNOM PENH, July 24, 2023 (AFP) – Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s heir apparent insisted Monday on the legitimacy of elections his party won against no meaningful opposition, defying international criticism that the polls were neither free nor fair. Hun Sen has ruled Cambodia for nearly 40 years — stifling all real opposition, freedom of speech and democratic reform — but has indicated recently that he will soon hand power to his eldest son Hun […]
JERUSALEM, July 24, 2023 (AFP) – Israeli lawmakers on Monday prepared for a final vote on a major component of the hard-right government’s controversial judicial overhaul, even as US President Joe Biden called for postponing the “divisive” bill that triggered months of mass protests. Lawmakers debated through the night amid last-ditch efforts by Israel’s President Isaac Herzog to reach a compromise. He met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a hospital where he had undergone surgery […]
WASHINGTON, July 18, 2023 (AFP) – Former US president Donald Trump said Tuesday he expected to be charged over the January 6 attack on the US Capitol — an indictment that would ramp up his legal woes as he makes another White House run. The 77-year-old Trump — in the hunt for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — is already facing criminal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith for mishandling top secret government documents […]
By Diana SIMEONOVA Agence France-Presse ROZHEN, Bulgaria (AFP) — A soaring mast in the mountains of southern Bulgaria has made the EU’s poorest country as the home of the bloc’s highest flagpole, filling some with pride and drawing scorn from others. Nationalism and populism are on the rise in the Balkan nation, where many remain strongly Russophile despite Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The immense 1,110-square-metre flag, meant to symbolise Bulgaria’s territory of 111,000 square […]
JAKARTA, July 12, 2023 (AFP) – Thailand’s foreign minister said Wednesday he met with ousted Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi last week and she was in good health in her first known meeting with a foreign envoy since she was detained following a 2021 coup. Suu Kyi has been seen only once since she was held after the February 1, 2021, putsch — in grainy state media photos from a bare courtroom in […]
BANGKOK, July 12, 2023 (AFP) – Thai election chiefs on Wednesday asked the country’s top court to suspend Pita Limjaroenrat, the frontrunner in the race to become prime minister, over allegations he broke campaign rules as an MP. The recommendation is the latest hurdle thrown into the path of the progressive candidate, whose Move Forward Party (MFP) scored the most votes in May’s election by tapping into Thais’ appetite for change. The Election Commission’s referral […]
By Patrick MARKEY Agence France-Presse LAGOS, Nigeria (AFP) — Just a month in power, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has already received foreign entrepreneurs and investors at his villa, telling them Nigeria is open for business after a flurry of surprise economic reforms. The former Lagos governor added a diplomatic step this week, becoming chairman of the West Africa bloc ECOWAS, with a call for more democracy and cooperation in the region wracked by coups and […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Paraguay’s incoming president Santiago Pena said Wednesday the country would stand by Taiwan’s side for the duration of his five-year term, reaffirming it as Taipei’s lone diplomatic ally in South America. Asuncion is one of the few remaining capitals in the wider Latin American region to still recognize Taiwan, after Beijing — which claims the island as its territory — spent decades convincing Taipei’s allies to switch sides. Pena’s trip to […]
