THAILAND
Anti-royalist gets 50 years
A court of appeals has handed a political activist what is believed to be a record sentence for insulting the monarchy, giving him a 50-year prison term after finding him guilty of 25 violations of the law, a lawyers’ group said on Thursday. Mongkhon Thirakot, 30, was last year sentenced to 28 years in prison by the Chiang Rai provincial court for 14 of 27 posts on Facebook for which he was charged. The Northern Region court of appeals in Chiang Rai on Thursday found him guilty not just in the 14 cases, but also in 11 of the 13 cases for which the lower court had acquitted him, the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said. The court of appeals sentenced him to an additional 22 years in prison, bringing his total to 50 years. Technically, he had been given a prison term of 75 years, but the sentence was cut by one-third in acknowledgement of his cooperation in the legal proceedings. Mongkhon’s defense team said they would appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
INDIA
Burmese soldiers flee
Nearly 300 Burmese soldiers crossed the border to flee an advance by armed insurgents fighting the country’s junta, an Indian paramilitary officer said yesterday. Clashes have rocked parts of Myanmar near the border since the Arakan Army attacked security forces in November. This week, the group said it had taken over the town of Paletwa and six military bases along the border of India’s Mizoram state, where the soldiers had crossed on Wednesday. A total of 276 troops carrying their arms and ammunition arrived at Bondukbangsora Village, an officer from the Assam Rifles paramilitary force said. “We have given them shelter at our camp,” he said, adding that his unit was collecting biometric data from the soldiers and had sought approval from the defense ministry to return them to Myanmar.
CANADA
Nunavut gets rich land
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday signed over control of resource-rich Arctic lands to the government of the predominantly Inuit territory of Nunavut, in what was billed as the largest land transfer in the nation’s history. Nunavut, at more than 2 million square kilometers, is almost three times the size of Texas, and is believed to hold some of the richest resource deposits in the country, including gold, diamonds and rare earth minerals, as well as oil and gas. Trudeau signed a devolution agreement with Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok in Iqaluit. It effectively gives the territorial government of Nunavut responsibility over its lands and resources, and the right to collect royalties that would otherwise go to the federal government. The agreement is to be fully implemented over the next three years.
PHILIPPINES
Landslide kills 10 people
A landslide set off by days of heavy rain buried a house where people were holding Christian prayers in the south, killing at least 10 people, including five children, officials said yesterday. Two people were injured, and at least one more villager remained unaccounted for following the landslide in a remote mountain village in the gold-mining town of Monkayo in Davao de Oro province, said Ednar Dayanghirang, regional head of the Office of Civil Defense. Three more bodies were found yesterday, after the search was paused mid-afternoon on Thursday due to the risk of another landslide. “They were praying in the house when the landslide hit,” Dayanghirang said by telephone Thursday night. “It’s sad, but it’s the reality on the ground.”
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
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