Travis King, the American soldier who fled to North Korea, had been detained for getting into fights in South Korea before he crossed the border.
Court documents showed he also damaged a police car and had recently spent time in a detention facility in Seoul.
The 23-year-old serviceman had been recently released and was being sent back to the US when he escaped.
He joined a tour of the Joint Security Area and fled into North Korea, which has not commented so far.
‘Gut-churning’: anger as Hungarian president addresses major women’s rights conference
Katalin Novák, an anti-abortionist and promoter of pro-natalist policies, spoke at the opening of the Women Deliver conference in Rwanda
Some leading delegates at a women’s rights conference in Rwanda have expressed shock at the appearance there of the Hungarian president, an anti-abortionist criticised for an anti-equality stance.
Katalin Novák, an important player in the international “anti-gender movement”, was invited by the Rwandan government to speak at the Women Deliver conference in Kigali this week, where reproductive rights is one of the areas under discussion.
“We were taken aback,” said conference attendee Bruna Martinez, an activist from Brazil and member of Young Feminist Europe. “We don’t understand why a woman like this would be invited.”
Afghanistan: Women protest Taliban ban on beauty salons
Gun shots were fired in the air during a rare public demonstration in Kabul against an order to ban beauty parlors. Protesters said the Taliban guards also sprayed water on them to break up the demonstrations.
Dozens of Afghan women took to the streets in downtown Kabul on Wednesday to protest the Taliban’s ban on beauty salons. Security forces used fire hoses, tasers and shot guns into the air to break up the protest, according to reports.
At least 60 women took part in the demonstrations, which grabbed the attention of security personnel as public protests are a rare event in Afghanistan.
In late June, Taliban authorities ordered thousands of beauty parlors nationwide run by women to be closed within one month’s time, claiming the services offered are forbidden by Islam.
‘The Taliban took a few women away’
Videos and photos shared by the protesters showed many women carrying placards reading “food,” “justice,” and “work”.
Moroccan court keeps two journalists behind bars
Morocco’s top court has rejected the final appeals of two journalists, Omar Radi and Soulaimane Raissouni, imprisoned on sexual assault charges they deny, their lawyer said Wednesday.
The court of cassation in Rabat on Tuesday “rejected our appeal and confirmed the prison sentences” of the two men who have been behind bars since 2021, lawyer Miloud Kandil told AFP.
Radi, 37, was handed a six-year prison term and Raissouni, 51, a five-year sentence in trials that defence lawyers labelled “flawed”.
Human Rights Watch has accused Morocco of using criminal trials, especially for alleged sexual offences, as “techniques of repression” to silence journalists and government critics.
Authorities in the north African kingdom say the journalists were tried for common law crimes which “have nothing to do” with their profession or free speech.
Millions face extreme heat across the globe
By Adrienne Vogt and Mike Hayes, CNN
Extreme heat putting health systems under increased pressure, WHO chief says
From CNN’s Sharon Braithwaite and Catherine Nicholls in London
The extreme heat this summer in many parts of the world is putting more pressure on health systems, the World Health Organization’s Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday.
“Many countries in the northern hemisphere are now experiencing extreme heat, driven by the El Nino weather pattern and climate change. Two weeks ago, we saw the hottest day on record,” the WHO chief said during a press conference in Geneva.
“Extreme heat takes the greatest toll on those least able to manage its consequences, such as older people, infants and children, and the poor and homeless,” he added, stressing that “it also puts increased pressure on health systems. Exposure to excessive heat has wide-ranging impacts for health, often amplifying pre-existing conditions and resulting in premature death and disability.”
Russia-Ukraine war: Prigozhin says Wagner won’t fight in Ukraine
- Yevgeny Prigozhin tells his Wagner mercenaries in Belarus that they will not fight in Ukraine and asks them to prepare for a “new journey to Africa”, a video appears to show.
- South Africa, host of this year’s BRICS summit, says Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend. A member of the International Criminal Court, the African nation would have been obligated to arrest the Russian leader for war crimes in Ukraine if he showed up.
- Ukraine accuses Russia of damaging grain export infrastructure in “hellish” overnight strikes focused on two of its Black Sea ports.
- The United Kingdom’s MI6 chief says Putin is “clearly under pressure” after last month’s Wagner Group mutiny and calls on Russians to spy for the UK.
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