Focus turns to Thai military, anti-government protesters tell them to pick sides
By Amy Sawitta Lefevre
Anti-government protesters in Thailand pinned their hopes on winning support from the powerful security forces on Thursday as they push to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and install an unelected administration.
A small group of protesters scaled the walls into the grounds of Yingluck's Government House office on Thursday. They left without confronting police stationed there but said they wanted the officers to leave.
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, a former deputy premier accused of murder during 2010 protests, has asked police and military chiefs to meet him by Thursday evening and to choose their side in the latest crisis engulfing Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy.
Japan condemned for 'secret' executions
Two more men have been hanged, under a system where death row prisoners are not told of their execution until hours before
Japan has carried out another round of "secret executions," bringing to eight the number of inmates sent to the gallows under the year-old administration of Shinzo Abe.
Media reports said two men had been hanged in the fourth round of executions since Abe took office last December. Previous hangings took place in February, April and September, suggesting that the government plans to carry them out every few months.
On Thursday, Mitsuo Fujishima, 55, was hanged for two murders in 1986, while Ryoji Kagayama, 63, had been convicted of killing two people in 2000 and 2008, media reports said.
Japan has brushed aside calls by Amnesty and the European Union to abolish the death penalty, citing strong public support for the punishment.
Ukraine’s opposition rejects talks with president
Jailed ex-PM Tymoshenko urges compatriots to “rise up” against Yanukovich
Daniel McLaughlin
Ukrainian opposition leaders have refused to hold crisis talks with president Viktor Yanukovich until he makes concessions, saying a riot police raid on Kiev’s main protest camp showed he was ready to use force to crush his critics.
Jailed former premier Yulia Tymoshenko urged her compatriots to “rise up” against Mr Yanukovich, as thousands of demonstrators on Independence Square rebuilt barricades that were torn down early yesterday by massed ranks of riot police, who were eventually forced to retreat after failing to dislodge the spirited protesters.
The EU and US condemned the raid on the square, known to Ukrainians as the Maidan, which came just hours after Mr Yanukovich had met top officials from Washington and Brussels and assured them he wanted to peacefully resolve his stand-off with opponents.
Is Turkey helping international jihadis head to Syria?
The US and European governments worry that Turkey is turning a blind eye to jihadis from their soil seeking to fight in Syria, and fear the consequences when these blooded fighters return home.
Western governments are expressing growing alarm at the rise of hard-line jihad groups in Syriaand their recruitment of volunteers from Europe and the US, who could present a future security threat if and when the survivors return home.
This has put a spotlight on Turkey, a NATO ally that has sided against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Turkey, which shares a land border with Syria, has become a key transit route and staging area for antigovernment forces, including Al Qaeda-linked militants. Despite intensifying Western pressure, questions linger over Turkey’s willingness to crack down on these groups.
Inside Cambodia's hidden child brothels
Late one night, after dark, we met up with Don Brewster -- head of Agape International Missions, an NGO fighting child prostitution -- to go behind the scenes at Cambodia's KTVs: karaoke clubs that are fronts for brothels.
I threw on some jeans and tried to look like a tourist who was up for a kinky kind of tour, with my ersatz "boyfriend"-- our cameraman, Scott.
Don drove us first to an out of the way small side street, where there were tiny KTVs operating out in the open like cheap brothels. Girls sat on plastic chairs lining the entrance, all painted up and wearing short skirts, high heels and fake smiles. We walked past a few, stopping to talk for a little while. The girls would stand up, becoming energized and engaged. We crossed the street and approached another one, as if we were sampling the wares at each one.
For Mexican town, fears linger over theft of radioactive cobalt-60
McClatchy Foreign Staff
HUEYPOXTLA, MEXICO — On Dec. 2, gunmen at a gas station commandeered a private truck that was carrying a heavy piece of cancer-treating machinery from a hospital in Tijuana to a radioactive waste storage facility near Mexico City. The theft set off global alarm bells, including an alert from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, which described the highly radioactive cobalt-60 that had powered the missing equipment as “extremely dangerous.”
Then, within two days, fears subsided that the material could be used for a “dirty bomb” if it fell into the hands of terrorists. Mexican officials announced that the material had been located and that the suspected thieves had been arrested.
Then, within two days, fears subsided that the material could be used for a “dirty bomb” if it fell into the hands of terrorists. Mexican officials announced that the material had been located and that the suspected thieves had been arrested.
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