British, US authors vie for Man Booker Prize
AFP, London
Three British and three US authors will on Tuesday discover which one of them is the winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize, whose shortlist stirred controversy over its big name omissions.
US author George Saunders is the bookmakers’ favourite to take the world’s most prestigious English-language literary award for his first full-length novel “Lincoln in the Bardo”.
UN elects Congo to HR Council despite abuses
AP, United Nations
The United States and human rights groups sharply criticized Monday’s U.N. election for 15 new members of the Human Rights Council, singling out conflict-torn Congo’s victory despite accusations of serious rights abuses and an investigation by the U.N.’s top human rights body.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley called the election “yet another example of why the Human Rights Council lacks credibility and must be reformed in order to be saved.
Abe sends offering to war shrine
AFP, Tokyo
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to a controversial war shrine on Tuesday, risking protest from China and South Korea which see it as a painful reminder of Tokyo’s warring past.
The conservative premier-who has been criticised for what some see as a revisionist take on Japan’s wartime record-sent a sacred “masakaki” tree bearing his name to Yasukuni Shrine as it starts a four-day festival.
Kremlin foe Navalny can run for President
AFP, Moscow
Vladimir Putin’s top critic Alexei Navalny will be able to run for president after 2028, the head of the Russian Central Election Commission said on Tuesday.
Russians are scheduled to go to polls to elect a president next March and Navalny, 41, has declared his intention to run against Putin.
In February 2017, a court found Navalny guilty of embezzlement and handed him a five-year suspended sentence
