Thai king endorses army chief as new leader
King Bhumibol Adulyadej backs General Prayuth Chan-ocha as military detention of coup dissenters continues to rise
Thailand's king has endorsed the army chief who seized power in a coup last week, amid widespread international criticism and increasing detention of those considered to be opposed to the takeover.
General Prayuth Chan-ocha told journalists on Monday morning that the much revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 86, had officially backed him as the leader of the military council now running the country.
Prayuth seized power on Thursday after six months of political in-fighting between the now-deposed government and its critics, who had taken to the streets and besieged government buildings in an effort to oust it. At least 28 people were killed and more than 700 injured in sometimes violent clashes after anti-government protests began in November.
Europe defies Big Data’s right to All Data
The European Court of Justice’s ruling enshrines the right to forget
Maureen Dowd
The Right to Be Forgotten. It sounds like the title of a classic novel about desire and memory, perhaps Marcel Proust’s sequel to Remembrance of Things Past.
It is, in fact, based on a French legal phrase, le droit ? l’oubli, the right of oblivion, which allows criminals who have paid their debt to society to object to the publication of information about their conviction and jail time. That concept was the underpinning of the European Court of Justice’s recent jolting ruling that Google and other search engines can be forced to remove search results about ordinary citizens linking to news articles, websites, court records and other documents if the information is deemed “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant” – even if it is truthful.
Why is China keeping quiet about its claim on this South China Sea island?
May 26, 2014 - 11:26AMMichael Gold and Greg Torode
Taipei: Taiwan is building a $US100 million port next to an airstrip on the lone island it occupies in the disputed South China Sea, a move that is drawing hardly any flak from the most assertive player in the bitterly contested waters - China.
The reason, say military strategists, is that Itu Aba could one day be in China's hands should it ever take over Taiwan, which it regards as a renegade province.
While Itu Aba, also called Tai Ping, is small, no other disputed island has such sophisticated facilities. Its runway is the biggest of only two in the Spratly archipelago that straddles the South China Sea, and the island has its own fresh water source.Boko Haram massacre more civilians
In what has become a deadly pattern of violence, gunmen have killed another 28 people in Nigeria.
Suspected Islamist Boko Haram gunmen rampaged through three villages in northern Nigeria, killing 28 people and burning houses to the ground in a pattern of violence that has become almost a daily occurrence, according to police and witnesses.
All three attacks happened on Thursday in remote parts of Borno state, the epicentre of Boko Haram’s increasingly bloody struggle for an Islamic kingdom in religiously mixed Nigeria.
One took place right next to Chibok, by the Cameroon border, from where more than 200 school girls were abducted last month.
The most deadly was in the town of Kerenua, near the Niger border. Scores of militants opened fire on residents, killing 20 of them, and burned houses, a police source said.
Armed Pro-Russian Separatists Overrun Airport in Donetsk
DONETSK, Ukraine - Armed pro-Russian separatists overran an airport in restive eastern Ukraine on Monday, a day after voters across the country appeared to have handed a decisive victory to a billionaire candy magnate calling for greater integration with Europe.
The 50 or so separatists claiming to be members of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic demanded that Ukrainian troops withdraw from the Donetsk airport, an airport spokesman told NBC News.
How a team of students beat the casinos
When it comes to gambling, everyone knows the casino always comes out on top - right? But in the 1990s a group of students proved the punter didn't have to be the loser. This is the story of the MIT Blackjack Team.
Bill Kaplan laughs, remembering his mother's reaction when he told her he was postponing his entrance to Harvard to make his fortune at gambling. "Oh my God, this is ridiculous! What am I going to tell my friends?" she said.
Kaplan had read a book about card counting and believed he could use a mathematical model to make good money from blackjack. It was certainly not his mother's dream for her straight-A student son.
But Kaplan's stepfather was more open to the idea and threw down a challenge. "Play me every night and prove you can win," he said.
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