US-CHINA A Chinese woman who served a U.S. prison term for money laundering was returned to China yesterday, authorities said, just ahead of a meeting between President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
UNITED NATIONS Xi Jinping will preside this weekend over a U.N. conference on gender equality, which some activists say is galling given China’s recent detentions of women’s rights activists and its history of stopping people from attending U.N. meetings to discuss such issues.
THAILAND The European Union urged Thailand’s military government to respect freedom of speech and assembly as it prepares to draft a new constitution. The statement followed the temporary detention of two politicians and a prominent journalist who had criticized the junta.
Thailand Defense witnesses for two Myanmar migrant workers accused of murdering two young British tourists on a Thai resort island have testified that torture and intimidation are commonly used by local investigators. The three witnesses who testified yesterday — a member of the National Human Rights Commission, a lawyer and a fellow migrant worker — all described how a violent and abusive system caused the two defendants to make confessions they later recanted.
PAKISTAN Police say gunmen on a motorcycle have killed the deputy chief of a jail and his brother as they received guests for the Eid al-Adha holiday in northwest Pakistan. Senior police officer Shafiullah Khan says yesterday’s attack took place in Charsadda, about 50 kilometers northeast of Peshawar, capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. No one claimed responsibility but suspicion fell on Pakistani Taliban who often target police and security forces.
PUERTO RICO Tropical Storm Ida is moving slowly eastward in the Atlantic. The storm’s maximum sustained winds yesterday were near 65 kph with little change in strength expected over the next two days. The storm is centered about 1,855 kilometers east of the northern Leeward Islands and is moving east near 9 kph.
UK Human rights groups have accused the IOC of failing to include explicit requirements on human rights in the host city contract for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Amnesty International issued a statement on behalf of the “Sport and Rights Alliance” that also includes Transparency International Germany and the International Trade Union Confederation. Eduard Nazarski, director of Amnesty International Netherlands, says it is “astonishing” that the International Olympic Committee omitted explicit references to human rights in the contract.
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