Hong Kong protests: Carrie Lam vows to push ahead with extradition bill
Leader of government refuses to withdraw the bill, which critics fear could lead to abuse by Beijing
The leader of Hong Kong’s government has said she remains determined to pass a controversial extradition bill, despite an estimated one million people marching against the legislation on Sunday.
The huge march, which stretched for more than two miles, was peaceful until midnight, when police and demonstrators clashed after attempts to disperse some remaining protesters from the area outside the legislative offices.
Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, a key target of the rally, said the size of the rally showed there we’re “clearly still concerns“ over the bill, but the fact so many people took part in the rally showed claims that the rights and freedoms of Hong Kongers, journalists and others were not being eroded.
Russian dailies publish same front page over reporter's arrest
Three top Russian dailies on Monday published the same front page in an unprecedented act of solidarity over the arrest of an investigative reporter on drugs charges.
"I am/we are Ivan Golunov," the Kommersant, Vedomosti and RBK newspapers declared in giant letters on their front pages.
Golunov, a 36-year-old investigative reporter with Meduza, an independent Russian-language media outlet, was detained last week over allegations that he manufactured and dealt drugs.
His arrest sparked outrage among Russian journalists and supporters who say the charges against him are a punishment for his reporting.
Golunov faces between 10 and 20 years in prison if convicted.
These North Korean defectors were sold into China as cybersex slaves. Then they escaped
Updated 0409 GMT (1209 HKT) June 10, 2019
Wearing big black headphones and sitting on a blue floral bedspread, North Korean defector Lee Yumi was video chatting with yet another stranger online, dark rings shading the pale skin under her eyes.
For five years, Lee -- whose name has been changed for her safety -- says she had been imprisoned with a handful of other girls in a tiny apartment in northeast China, after the broker she trusted to plan her escape from North Korea sold her to a cybersex operator. Her captor allowed her to leave the apartment once every six months. Attempts to escape had failed.
Sudan: 'Several killed' on first day of civil disobedience
Group of doctors linked with protesters says four people killed in capital Khartoum and neighbouring Omdurman city.
At least four people were killed as Sudanese security forces moved to quell a civil disobedience campaign launched on Sunday that left streets in the capital Khartoum largely deserted.
Public transport was barely functioning and most commercial banks, private companies and markets were shut, though some state banks and public utility offices were open.
Opposition and protest groups had called for workers to stay at home after security forces stormed a protest camp on Monday, killing dozens and dealing a blow to hopes of a peaceful transition after the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir in April.
Kathua child rape and murder: India court finds six guilty
Six of eight men accused of the rape, torture and murder of an eight-year-old Muslim girl in Indian-administered Kashmir have been found guilty in a specially convened fast-track court.
The victim, who belonged to a Muslim nomadic tribe, was found in a forest near Kathua city in January 2018.
The case made headlines when Hindu right-wing groups and lawyers protested over the arrest of the eight men.
All of them had pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
One of them - the son of one of those convicted - has been acquitted. The eight accused include a retired government official, four police officers and a minor.
HIDDEN PLOT
Exclusive: Brazil’s Top Prosecutors Who Indicted Lula Schemed in Secret Messages to Prevent His Party From Winning 2018 Election
AN ENORMOUS TROVE of secret documents reveals that Brazil’s most powerful prosecutors, who have spent years insisting they are apolitical, instead plotted to prevent the Workers’ Party (PT) from winning the 2018 presidential election by blocking or weakening a pre-election interview with former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with the explicit purpose of affecting the outcome of the election.
The massive archive, provided exclusively to The Intercept, shows multiple examples of politicized abuse of prosecutorial powers by those who led the country’s sweeping Operation Car Wash corruption probe since 2014. It also reveals a long-denied political and ideological agenda. One glaring example occurred 10 days before the first round of presidential voting last year, when a Supreme Court justice granted a petition from the country’s largest newspaper, Folha de São Paulo, to interview Lula, who was in prison on corruption charges brought by the Car Wash task force.
Japan's resident Koreans endure a climate of hate
BY PHILIP BRASOR
SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES
Later this month, the Diet’s Upper House will pass a bill submitted by the ruling coalition addressing the problem of hate speech, specifically directed at non-Japanese. As sociologist Takehiro Akedo explains in his article for the Web magazine Synodos, the Liberal Democratic Party isn’t enthusiastic about the bill, but when the Democratic Party of Japan was in power it drafted its own, so the LDP feels it has to follow through, especially since the U.N. has told Japan it needs such a law. Akedo pointed out the bill’s flaws: The definition of victims is too narrow and — a flaw in the DPJ draft, as well — there are no enforceable punishments. The main opposition party complained that the LDP bill doesn’t even “prohibit” hate speech.
In order to appreciate how pointless the bill is, it’s important to know that the main target of Japanese hate speech is resident Koreans, most of whom were born and raised here. Since they don’t have Japanese nationality, they are technically foreigners, though many have never stepped outside of Japan. The government has always insisted they can become Japanese nationals, and each year about 7,000 do, but in any case, many want to keep their Korean identity.
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