22/08/2025

FRIDAY | AUG 22, 2025

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Suspended Thai premier testifies in ouster case trial

Indonesian deputy minister arrested JAKARTA: Indonesia’s anti graft agency has arrested Deputy Manpower Minister Immanuel Ebenezer in connection with an investigation into alleged extortion, the agency’s deputy head said yesterday. Ebenezer, a member of President Prabowo Subianto’s party Gerindra, became the first member of Prabowo’s Cabinet to be arrested for graft. Prabowo, who was sworn in last October, has campaigned against corruption in and out of his government. Fitroh Rohcahyanto, the deputy head of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission, said Immanuel’s arrest was related to an investigation into allegations of irregularities in the ministry’s issue of safety permits. He provided no other details. The Manpower Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment and it was not clear if the deputy minister has been charged with any offence. Reuters was not immediately able to contact Ebenezer’s lawyer. Last year, Indonesia was ranked at 99 out of 180 countries on global graft watchdog Transparency International’s corruption perception index. – Reuters Kim’s 2019 summit with President Donald Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, collapsed because the two sides disagreed on what Pyongyang would concede in return for sanctions relief. Since then, North Korea has repeatedly said it will never give up its weapons and declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear state. And in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Pyongyang has drawn closer to Moscow. – AFP N. Korea has secret missile base near China: Report SEOUL: North Korea has built a secret military base near its border with China that may house Pyongyang’s newest long-range ballistic missiles, according to new research. The “undeclared” Sinpung-dong Missile Operating Base lies about 27km from the Chinese frontier, the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report published on Wednesday. The facility in North Pyongan Province likely houses six to nine nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and their launchers, the study said. It said the weapons “pose a potential nuclear threat to East Asia and the continental United States”. North Korea has ramped up its nuclear weapons programme since a failed summit with the United States in 2019, and leader Kim Jong Un recently called for the “rapid expansion” of the diplomatically isolated nation’s nuclear capability. The report – which CSIS called the first in depth, open-source confirmation of Sinpung dong – said the base is one of about “15-20 ballistic missile bases, maintenance, support, missile storage and warhead storage facilities which North Korea has never declared”. The facility is “not known to have been the subject of any denuclearisation negotiations previously conducted between the United States and North Korea”, the study said. Citing their analysts’ current assessments, CSIS said the launchers and missiles could leave the base in times of crisis or war, link up with special units and conduct harder-to detect launches from other parts of the country. The base, along with others, “represent the primary components of what is presumed to be North Korea’s evolving ballistic missile strategy, and its expanding strategic-level nuclear deterrence and strike capabilities”, the report said.

Paetongtarn’s suspension, said he thought she acted in good faith during the call. “I believe there was nothing that affected the country’s security, and I trust her intention to keep Thailand out of conflict,” he told reporters. As well as precipitating a political crisis, the call – released in full online by Hun Sen – plunged Thai-Cambodian relations into turmoil. The border row erupted into the two sides’ deadliest military clashes in decades, with more than 40 people killed and 300,000 forced to flee their homes along the border. If the verdict goes against her, Paetongtarn would become the third Shinwatra to be ousted early as premier, after her father and aunt Yingluck – both thrown out in military coups. Thai politics has been driven for two decades by a battle between the conservative, pro-military, pro-royalist elite and the Shinawatra clan, whom they consider a threat to the kingdom’s traditional social order. Thaksin, 76, faces his own day of reckoning today when a Bangkok criminal court gives its verdict in his lese-majeste trial. He could face up to 15 years in jail if found guilty in the case, which relates to an interview he gave with South Korean media 10 years ago. – AFP

She answered judges’ questions for around an hour and a half, but the court has issued an order banning any reporting of what was said during the hearing. The case centres around her call in June with Hun Sen, Cambodia’s longtime ruler and father of its premier, which focused on the two neighbours’ then-brewing row over their disputed border. In the call, Paetongtarn addressed Hun Sen as “uncle” and referred to a Thai military commander as her “opponent”, sparking a furious reaction in Thailand. Conservative lawmakers accused her of kowtowing to Cambodia and undermining the military – a hugely powerful institution in Thailand. The main partner in Paetongtarn’s ruling coalition walked out in protest over her conduct in the leaked call, a move that almost collapsed her government. A group of senators filed a petition with the Constitutional Court arguing Paetongtarn should be removed from office for breaching constitutional provisions that require “evident integrity” and “ethical standards” among ministers. Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who has been in office since

o Judge issues gag order

BANGKOK: Thailand’s suspended prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra testified yesterday in a case seeking her removal from office over her handling of the kingdom’s border row with Cambodia. Paetongtarn, daughter of controversial but influential billionaire ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, is accused of failing in her duties by not standing up for the country properly in a call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen, audio of which was leaked online. The Constitutional Court, which ousted her predecessor as prime minister a year ago in a separate ethics case, will rule next Friday on whether Paetongtarn should be thrown out of office. The court suspended Paetongtarn from office last month and summoned her to answer questions in the case yesterday – her 39th birthday. Dressed in a black business suit, Paetongtarn smiled and greeted reporters as she arrived at court in Bangkok with Prommin Lertsuridej, a top adviser who is named in the case with her.

Paetongtarn leaving the Constitutional Court after testifying. – REUTERSPIC

Myanmar unveils new election details YANGON: Myanmar released details of its long awaited December election yesterday, saying the first voting phase would cover about a third of the nation’s townships despite conflict around the country. timetable, but a notice published in state media said the first round of voting will take place in 102 of Myanmar’s 330 townships.

voting in just three of its 17 townships on the first polling day. Northern Sagaing region, a stronghold of pro-democracy guerillas, will see ballots cast in about a third of its jurisdictions. The government has not yet announced the dates of subsequent polling rounds nor confirmed which townships will be included in them. Myanmar’s last election in 2020 saw Suu Kyi’s party win by a landslide before the military ousted her government. The government has introduced penalties of up to 10 years for critics of the poll. – AFP

They include all townships in the sprawling and sparsely-populated capital Naypyidaw and around a quarter of those covering the commercial capital and largest city Yangon – home to seven million people. But the notice, printed in the Global New Light of Myanmar , suggested more limited ambitions in areas where the military is battling myriad opponents pledging to block the vote. Western Rakhine state, which is nearly entirely controlled by the Arakan Army, will see

The military-led government announced this week that polls would be held in phases, starting on Dec 28, pushing the vote as a salve for a war that has consumed the country since the generals seized power in a 2021 coup. But vast tracts of the country are outside its control and democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed. The government has yet to set a full election