World briefs
THAILAND Friends and foes alike of former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra are anxiously awaiting a verdict today by the Supreme Court on charges she was criminally negligent in implementing a rice subsidy program that is estimated to have cost the government as much as USD17 billion and could send her to prison for 10 years.
VIETNAM-TURKEY Turkey’s prime minister said he wants to double trade volume with Vietnam to USD4 billion in the next three years as his country seeks to boost cooperation with the Southeast Asian country.
PAKISTAN’s top political and military leaders yesterday offered a stark response to Donald Trump’s accusations earlier this week, telling the American president that scapegoating Pakistan will not bring about peace in Afghanistan.
UAE A transgender Singaporean and her friend have been sentenced to a year in prison in the capital of the United Arab Emirates for dressing in a feminine way, friends and family say.
QATAR-IRAN Qatar restored full diplomatic relations with Iran yesterday and promised to send its ambassador back to Tehran — a move counter to the demands of Arab nations trying to isolate Doha as part of a regional dispute.
ITALY Migrants in a Rome piazza threw rocks, bottles and gas cans at riot police using water cannons to clear out about 100 mostly Ethiopian and Eritrean asylum-seekers yesterday as part of a security operation harshly criticized by humanitarian groups.
NETHERLANDS Alerted by a detailed tip from Spanish colleagues, Dutch police arrested a man early Thursday and questioned him on suspicion of preparing an attack on a concert in Rotterdam by an American rock band. More on p18
BRAZIL Environmentalists are condemning a decree by Brazilian President Michel Temer allowing mining in the heart of the Amazon. The measure strips protection from a national reserve between the northern states of Para and Amapa and clears the way for the private mining sector to explore the forest.
VENEZUELA Colombian TV network Caracol has been taken off the air in Venezuela a day after President Nicolas Maduro delivered a scathing rebuke of Colombian media.
