Thai officials seek extension of emergency
Thai security officials on Monday proposed extending a state of emergency imposed across about a third of the country, including Bangkok, in response to Opposition protests that turned deadly. The government unit set up to oversee security during the unrest unanimously backed the call to maintain emergency rule in the capital and 23 provinces “because of security concerns,” said spokesman Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd.
“It might be revoked earlier in the situation improves,” he said. The recommendation to prolong the state of emergency for another three months will be presented on Tuesday to the Cabinet.
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Suu Kyi party claims their symbol stolen
Rangoon, July 5: Members of detained Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s disbanded political party accused a renegade group on Monday of stealing their party symbol — a bamboo hat — to secure votes in Burma’s upcoming elections.
Nyan Win, a senior member of the National League for Democracy, said the conical hat commonly worn by farmers is synonymous with Ms Suu Kyi’s party, which won the last polls in 1990 by a landslide. Those results were not honoured by the military. He said a letter of complaint signed by 15 party members was sent to the Election Commission on Monday. The junta has called for the first polls in two decades to be held later this year. —AP
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13 held in Pak shrine bombings
Lahore, July 5: The Pakistani police on Monday claimed to have made a “big” breakthrough in the campaign against militants, saying they had arrested 13 “terrorists” believed to have been involved in major attacks, including those on mosques of the minority Ahmedi sect and the Jinnah Hospital.
The suspects were arrested from Shahdara and Muridke, located near Lahore, a senior official of the Crime Investigation Department said. They revealed during interrogation that they had planned to carry out attacks at 18 places in Lahore, he said.
The police seized 23,000 kg of explosives, dozens of anti-aircraft guns, grena-des and machine guns. —PTI
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Poisonous gas kills nine China miners
Beijing, July 5: Nine miners died from carbon monoxide poisoning over the weekend at a colliery in central China, state media reported on Monday, in the latest accident to plague the notoriously dangerous industry.
Three miners died in the pit, while six others who were initially rescued died later in hospital, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing Liu Xianghua, the deputy director of the coal mining bureau in the city of Yiyang. An initial probe found that two miners were working in the shaft when toxic levels of carbon monoxide were detected. Seven others were sent in to investigate and contact with them was lost, the report said. —AFP
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