EU suspends funding for Cambodian
election
Reuters, Phnom Penh
The European Union has suspended funding for Cambodia’s 2018 general election because the vote cannot be credible after the dissolution of the main opposition party, according to a letter sent to the national election committee on Tuesday.
The Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was dissolved by the country’s highest court last month at the request of the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen after the arrest of opposition leader Kem Sokha for alleged treason.
S Korea conducts anti-terror drills
Reuters, Pyeongchang
Set to host the Winter Olympics in February, South Korea conducted a series of security drills on Tuesday to prepare against terror attacks ranging from a hostage situation, a vehicle ramming a stadium and a bomb-attached to a drone.
Police and firemen were among around 420 personnel participating in the exercise, held in front of the Olympic Stadium at Pyeongchang, just 80 km (50 miles) from the heavily fortified border with North Korea.
Earthquake rocks southern Iran
AP, Tehran
Iran’s state TV says that a magnitude 6.2 earthquake has jolted the country’s southern province of Kerman.
The report says the temblor rocked the village of Hajdak, about 700 kilometers, or 400 miles, south of Tehran on Tuesday. It says the quake’s depth was 10 kilometers, or 6.2 miles. There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage.
Indian court convicts man over brutal rape
AFP, New Delhi
An Indian court Tuesday found a man guilty of raping and murdering a law student in a frenzied knife attack in southern Kerala state that sparked nationwide outrage.
The murdered student was found dead in a pool of blood in her home in Perumbavoor town on April 28, 2016, with nearly 30 stab wounds and bite marks on her severely disfigured corpse. Muhammed Ameerul Islam was convicted by a district court in Kerala over the brutal attack, which drew comparisons with the high-profile gang-rape and murder of a Delhi student in 2012.
