THAILAND PM TO BE CHARGED
Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will be charged with neglect of duty, which could see her lose her post if found guilty, AFP quotes an anti-graft panel as saying. The country’s Anti-Corruption Commission accuses the PM of having ignored its warnings concerning a rice farm subsidy scheme that guaranteed farmers above-market rates for rice but encouraged corruption.
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This comes as at least one police officer and two protesters were killed and 44 people were injured in Bangkok as police tried to remove protesters from key sites across the city, The Bangkok Post reports.
DOZENS KILLED IN SERIES OF IRAQ BOMBINGS
At least 49 people were killed yesterday night after a series of bomb blasts in Baghdad and in the Iraqi city of Hilla, Reuters reports.
10 DEAD IN SOUTH KOREA BUILDING COLLAPSE
At least 10 students have died in the collapse of an auditorium in a mountain resort near the South Korean city of Gyeongju, Chosunilbo reports. According to the BBC, President Park Geun-Hye announced a full investigation to find out what may have caused the collapse, which left over 100 people injured. Early indications suggest the weight of the snow on the roof is to blame.
SOUTH SUDAN REBELS ATTACK OIL-RICH REGION
Rebels in South Sudan have attacked and captured most of the strategic city of Malakal, the capital of the oil-rich state of Upper Nile, The Sudan Tribune quotes sources as saying.
DEADLY RIOT AT AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRATION DETENTION CENTER
One asylum seeker was killed and 77 others were injured after a violent riot erupted in one of Australia’s detention centers on a small island in Papua New Guinea, where it keeps would-be refugees who try to enter Australia, ABC reports. It is unclear what sparked the riots, with Australia’s immigration minister blaming the detainees while refugee advocates claim residents of the island stormed the facility. Read more from Reuters.
CLASHES BETWEEN PROTESTERS AND POLICE IN KIEV
Protesters in Kiev have clashed with the police, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails, and have managed to break in the building of President Viktor Yanukovych’s party, where a fire started after Molotov cocktails were thrown inside, RT reports.
On its live blog, The Kyiv Post reports that some 7,000 anti-government protesters are in the street, including many supporters of Svoboda, an extreme far-right opposition party notorious for its anti-semitism and neo-Nazi positions. When he visited the Kiev protesters in December, U.S. Sen. John McCain met with the leader of Svoboda Oleh Tyahnybok.
BY THE NUMBERS
Newly released data shows that more than 450 Indian migrants working in Qatar have died in the last two years amid World Cup preparations.
VERBATIM
In its report on human rights in North Korea, a UN commission likens Pyongyang to Nazi Germany and accuses China of helping the country to commit crimes against humanity.
MY GRAND-PÈRE’S WORLD
CRIME INT’L
These arrests near Paris just show the importance of keeping your hash(tags) out of sight of the police.
