TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A disbarred Chinese human rights lawyer has been forced to move 13 times in two months as part of a pattern of harassment against him and three other prominent rights defenders in Beijing that is putting further pressure on the battered civil rights community in the country. . Wang Quanzhang said he now lives in a borrowed apartment in the suburbs where electricity is frequently cut off, while another lawyer left Beijing in hopes of ending the harassment. His colleague Bao Longjun said he is still in the apartment he owns, but groups of unidentified men loitering outside his door have barred him from leaving several times.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A suspected Russian diplomat is apparently squatting on the site of Moscow’s proposed new embassy in Canberra after the Australian government vetoed the plan on security grounds and passed a law that Russia will seek to overturn in court. Australian Supreme. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dismissed the Russian act of defiance in occupying the site, saying on Friday that “a guy standing in the cold on some grass in Canberra is not a threat to our national security.” Albanese also said he was confident the eviction would withstand any Russian legal challenge. Parliament passed an emergency law last week blocking Russia’s lease on the largely vacant block on security grounds because the new embassy would have been too close to Parliament House.
CAIRO (AP) — Saudi Arabia is organizing its biggest Hajj pilgrimage in three years, starting Monday. But for many pilgrims, and for many others unable to attend, global inflation and economic crises made undertaking the spiritual journey of Islam more difficult. Mohammed, a university professor in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, said it was an annual tradition for him to request the Hajj. But not this time. To pay for the pilgrimage, “usually you can sacrifice something. But this year it was too expensive, ”he said. After a series of major recent family expenses, the increased price of a Hajj package put it out of reach.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The Malaysian government said Friday it will take legal action against Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms, for failing to remove unwanted and harmful content from its social media platform. The Communication and Multimedia Commission of Malaysia said that Facebook has recently been affected by a “significant volume of undesirable content” related to sensitive topics about race, religion and royalty, as well as defamation, impersonation, online gambling and fraudulent advertisements. . The commission said that repeated efforts to contact Meta to remove the harmful content were to no avail. “Meta’s response, which has been slow and unsatisfactory, has failed to respond to the urgency of the matter and has led to growing concern and public scrutiny,” he said in a statement.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s top tax authority said Friday it has approved the extradition to India of a Danish national accused of involvement in an arms smuggling case 28 years ago, but the decision must be made by a court of law. final. Niels Holck admitted to taking part in launching assault rifles, rocket launchers and missiles from a cargo plane in eastern India in 1995. Indian police said they were intended for an Indian revolutionary group. While a Briton and five Latvians were arrested by the Indian authorities, Holck, formerly known as Niels Christian Nielsen, escaped. Prosecutor Henriette Rosenborg Larsen said Denmark has investigated a 2016 Indian extradition request and that “in our assessment, the requirements of the extradition law have been met.” It is now up to a district court to decide whether he should be extradited, and any such decision can be appealed to a higher court, she added.
BANGKOK (AP) — A US aircraft carrier was due to make a port call in Vietnam on Sunday, a rare visit by one of the US Navy’s largest ships that comes as Washington and Beijing intensify their efforts to strengthen ties with Southeast Asian nations. The USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, was scheduled to arrive in Da Nang on June 25 and stay until June 30, making use of a port that was modernized and expanded by the United States during the Vietnam War. . , announced the country’s Foreign Ministry. It will be only the third such visit by a US aircraft carrier since the end of hostilities.
GUWAHATI, India (AP) — Tens of thousands of people have taken refuge in government-run relief camps as heavy monsoon rains batter villages in northeast India, and one person has died in flooding this week, it said Friday. a government relief agency. Assam state is on red alert and bracing for more downpours this weekend by evacuating people in low-lying areas. Nearly 14,000 people are currently living in 83 relief camps run by the Assam state government in 20 of the state’s 31 districts, the state disaster management agency said in a statement. In total, almost 500,000 people have been affected by the monsoon floods in the state.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodian pro-government legislators unanimously approved changes to the country’s election law Friday that will bar anyone who does not vote from running for office in future elections, a move critics say is aimed at aim to paralyze the opposition. chances in the polls. The measure was approved with minimal debate by the 111 deputies present in the National Assembly. All members of the assembly belong to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party. Hun Sen, who has been in power for 38 years, declared last week that the law would be changed before the July general election to force candidates for public office to demonstrate their civic responsibility.
TOKYO (AP) — The governor of southern Japan’s Okinawa prefecture on Friday marked the 78th anniversary of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II by calling for more diplomatic efforts to achieve peace, saying a military building on the islands has residents fearing regional tensions. . The Battle of Okinawa killed an estimated 200,000 people, almost half of them Okinawan residents. The Japanese military during the war, in an attempt to delay the US landing on the main islands, essentially slaughtered the local population. Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki said in his peace declaration that Okinawans suffered “unimaginable harm” and is commemorating the anniversary by remembering the absurdity and cruelty of the war, as well as the lessons learned from the survivors.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Friday that she is writing a book focused more on leadership than politics. In an Instagram post, Ardern said she is often asked if she will write about her five years as New Zealand’s leader. “At first, my answer was no. I didn’t want to write a book dealing with the domestic politics of the past five years, and then someone convinced me I didn’t have to,” she wrote Ardern. “That maybe it’s worth expanding on some of the things I talked about in my valedictorian speech, like the idea that you can be your own kind of leader and still make a difference.
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