NACC to Start Phase 2 of Online Assets Declaration System With Digital Technology on April 1
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) will be ready for Phase 2 of the Online Declaration System (ODS) which will upgrade the service for the online electronic filing of assets and liabilities accounts, following positive responses from nearly ten per cent of those who have filed in Phase 1 and remarked that it was easy, convenient and fast to use.
Niwatchai Kasemmongkol, Secretary-General of the NACC who concurrently acts as spokesman of the NACC Office, said the NACC Office has launched the Online Declaration System via www.nacc.go.th and https://asset.nacc.go.th./ods-app for the conveniences of those who may be legally obliged to file assets and liabilities accounts to the NACC.
Previously, those who had filed assets and liabilities accounts had had documents enclosed and sent to the NACC Office at the headquarters or in the provinces.
Since Phase 1 of the Online Declaration System opened on October 1, 2022, positive responses have been made from 138 persons who having obligation to submit the account of assets and liabilities to the NACC.
Phase 2 of the Online Declaration System will be ready on April 1, 2023, for those who may be legally obliged to file assets and liabilities accounts under Section 102 (1-8) including:
(1) Persons holding political position
(2) Justice of the Constitutional Court
(3) Person holding a position in an independent agency
(4) Judicial official under the law on regulations of judicial officials of the Court of Justice who is in the position of the Director-General and above
(5) Official of the Administrative Court under the law on establishment of Administrative Court and administrative case procedure who is in the position of the Director-General of the Administrative Court of First Instance and above
(6) Public prosecutors under the law on regulations of public prosecutors who is in the position of the Director-General and above
(7) Person holding a high-ranking position
(8) Other positions as obliged by other laws to submit the account of assets and liabilities
Phase 3 of the Online Declaration System is scheduled to open on October 1, 2023, for those who may be legally obliged to file assets and liabilities accounts under Section 102 (9) including Local administrator, deputy local administrator, assistant local administrator and members of the local assembly as prescribed by the NACC.
The ODS can be used online via www.nacc.go.th and https://asset.nacc.go.th./ods-app. For more information, please call 1205 NACC Hot Line during office hours
North Korean government shows what it says is a ballistic missile in North Pyongan Province, North Korea, on March 19, 2023. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Monday it simulated a nuclear attack on South Korea with a ballistic missile launch over the weekend that was its fifth missile demonstration this month to protest the largest joint military exercises in years between the U.S. and South Korea.
The North’s leader Kim Jong Un instructed his military to hold more drills to sharpen the war readiness of his nuclear forces in the face of “aggression” by his enemies, state media reported.
The South Korean and Japanese militaries detected the short-range missile being launched Sunday into waters off the North’s eastern coast, which reportedly came less than an hour before the U.S. flew long-range B-1B bombers for training with South Korean warplanes. The North characterizes the U.S.-South Korea exercises as a rehearsal to invade, though the allies insist they are defensive in nature. Some experts say the North uses the exercises as a pretext to advance its weapons programs.
This photo provided by the North Korean government shows what it says is a ballistic missile in North Pyongan Province, North Korea, on March 19, 2023. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said the missile, which flew about 800 kilometers (500 miles), was tipped with a mock nuclear warhead. It described the test as successful, saying that the device detonated as intended 800 meters (yards) above water at a spot that simulated an unspecified “major enemy target,” supposedly reaffirming the reliability of the weapon’s nuclear explosion control devices and warhead detonators.
The report said the launch was the final step of a two-day drill that also involved nuclear command and control exercises and training military units to switch more quickly into nuclear counterattack posture, properly handle nuclear weapons systems and execute attack plans.
The exercise was also a “stronger warning” to the United States and South Korea, who are “undisguised in their explicit attempt to unleash a war” against the North, KCNA said.
Photos published by state media showed Kim walking through a forest with his daughter and senior military officials and a missile the North described as a tactical nuclear weapon system soaring from the woods spewing flames and smoke.
Saying that his enemies are getting “ever more pronounced in their moves for aggression,” Kim laid out unspecified “strategic tasks” for further developing his nuclear forces and improving their war readiness, KCNA said. This indicated that the North could up the ante in its weapons demonstrations in coming weeks or months.
A U.S Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter transports a M777 howitzer during a joint military drill between South Korea and the United States at Rodriguez Live Fire Complex in Pocheon, South Korea, Sunday, March 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Jeon Ha Gyu, spokesperson of South Korea’s Defense Ministry, said it’s clear North Korea with its ramped-up testing activity is making “considerable progress” in nuclear weapons technology. He did not provide a specific assessment about the North’s claim about the successful warhead detonation.
North Korean photos indicated the latest launch was of a solid-fuel missile apparently modeled after Russia’s Iskander mobile ballistic system that the North has been testing since 2019. The missiles are built to travel at low altitudes and be maneuverable in flight, which theoretically improve their chances of evading South Korean missile defenses.
While these missiles have been mostly fired from wheeled vehicles, North Korea has also tested them or their variants from railcars, a submarine and a platform inside a reservoir. Photos of the latest test suggested the missile was possibly fired from a silo dug into the ground, highlighting the North’s efforts to diversify its launch options and make it harder for opponents to identify and counter them.
South Korea’s military said the launch took place at a mountainous northwestern region near Tongchangri, which hosts a site where the North conducted long-range rocket and satellite launches in previous years.
FILE – In this photo provided by South Korea Defense Ministry, U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers, center, fly in formation with South Korea’s Air Force F-35A fighter jets over the South Korea Peninsula during a joint air drill in South Korea, Sunday, March 19, 2023. (South Korea Defense Ministry via AP, File)
North Korea likely has dozens of nuclear warheads, but there are differing assessments on how far the North has advanced in miniaturizing and engineering those weapons so that they could fit on the newer weapons it tested in recent years.
While the North after six nuclear tests may be able to place simple nuclear warheads on some of its older systems, like Scuds or Rodong missiles, it will likely require further technology upgrades and nuclear tests to build warheads that can be installed on its more advanced tactical systems, according to Lee Choon Geun, an honorary research fellow at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute.
Sunday’s short-range launch was the North’s fifth missile event this month and the third since the U.S. and South Korean militaries began joint exercises on March 13. The allies’ drills, which are to continue through Thursday, include computer simulations and their biggest springtime field exercise since 2018.
The North so far in 2023 has fired around 20 missiles over nine different launch events. They included short-range missiles fired from land, cruise missiles launched from a submarine, and two different intercontinental ballistic missiles fired an airport near Pyongyang as it tries to demonstrate a dual ability to conduct nuclear attacks on South Korea and the U.S. mainland.
The latest ICBM test last Thursday preceded a summit between South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who agreed to resume security dialogues and take other steps to improve their oft-strained relations in the face of North Korean threats.
North Korea already is coming off a record year in testing activity, with more than 70 missiles fired in 2022, as Kim accelerates his weapons development aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiating badly needed sanctions relief from a position of strength.
In response to the most recent ICBM launch, the U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency open meeting Monday morning at the request of the United States, United Kingdom, Albania, Ecuador, France and Malta. Security Council resolutions have long banned North Korean ballistic missile activity, but permanent council members Russia and China have thwarted punishment or further sanctions in recent years.
The U.N. Security Council held an informal meeting Friday at which the U.S., its allies and human rights experts shone a spotlight on what they described as the dire rights situation in North Korea. China and Russia denounced the meeting as a politicized move.
North Korea’s U.N. Mission called the meeting about “our non-existent ‘human rights issue'” unlawful. It also said the U.S. held Friday’s meeting “while staging the aggressive joint military exercise which poses a grave threat to our national security.”
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KIM TONG-HYUNG reported from Seoul, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
A radioactive cylinder, a steel tube, 30 cm (12 inches) long and 13 cm (5 inches) diameter that has gone missing from a steam power plant in Thailand's eastern province of Prachinburi. (The Prachinburi Provincial Public Relations Office via AP)
A metal cylinder with radioactive contents that has gone missing from a power plant in Si Maha Phot District, Prachinburi province, 100 kilometers east of Bangkok, has been found in the province.
The 30-centimeter- (12-inch-) long cylinder containing the radioactive material Caesium-137 was discovered missing on March 10 from a piece of machinery at the National Power Plant 5 which belongs to the National Power Supply Public Co., Ltd.
The company said it is not clear whether the cylinder had gone missing by accident. The company added a reward of 100,000 baht for anyone who can provide information about it.
According to a statement from the Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP), search teams and drones have been deployed to recover the missing cylinder. The search focused on steel recycling facilities, junk shops and secondhand stores.
Eventually, the search team found it on Sunday, March 19, at one company in Hat Nang Kaeo Subdistrict, Kabin Buri District, while scanning for radiation along the piles of scrap metal, including the compressed steel that will go into the furnace.
Health officials cautioned the public that prolonged direct contact with radioactive material can cause skin rashes, hair loss, canker sores, fatigue, and vomiting. They said short-term contact with Caesium-137 may not show immediate symptoms but could lead to a higher risk of cancer.
FILE - Serbia's Novak Djokovic, March 1, 2023.
(AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File)
By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer – After Novak Djokovic withdrew from tournaments in Florida and California because he still can’t travel to the United States as a foreign citizen who is not vaccinated against COVID-19, a U.S. Tennis Association spokesman said Saturday the group is “very hopeful” the top-ranked player will be allowed into the country for the U.S. Open in August.
“Policies concerning access to the United States are determined by the White House. We are very hopeful that the policy preventing Novak Djokovic from entering the United States will be rescinded, or lapse, in the near future,” the USTA’s Chris Widmaier wrote to The Associated Press.
“No COVID-19 restrictions are in place at the U.S. Open for any player, fan or other attendee. Novak, one of our sport’s great champions, would be welcome to compete at the 2023 U.S. Open.”
The two-week U.S. Open starts in Flushing Meadows on Aug. 28.
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic after defeating Croatia’s Marin Cilic during their Davis Cup tennis semi-final match at Madrid Arena in Madrid, Spain, on Dec. 3, 2021. Photo: Bernat Armangue / AP File
Djokovic, a 35-year-old from Serbia, was unable to get to New York for the season’s last Grand Slam tournament in 2022, when he also missed the Miami Open and BNP Paribas Open because he never got the shots for the illness caused by the coronavirus.
A six-time Miami Open champion, Djokovic is out of the field for the event that begins next week, a spokesman for the Miami Open said Saturday.
But he will now have missed the first two Masters 1000 events of the season. He also pulled out of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, which ends this weekend.
Back in in April 2020, as the pandemic raged, Djokovic said he was opposed to needing to be vaccinated to travel. He later said he would not get inoculated even if it meant missing tournaments.
Novak Djokovic of Serbia gestures as he holds the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup after defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in the men’s singles final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
In January 2022, he tried to get an exemption to compete at the Australian Open and traveled to Melbourne. But after his case went to court, his visa was revoked and Djokovic was deported from the country.
Pandemic restrictions have been eased in Australia since, and Djokovic returned this year without a problem and won the season’s first major championship.
Meanwhile, Nadal has been sidelined since hurting his left hip flexor during a second-round loss at Melbourne Park. He is aiming to return to action at the Monte Carlo Masters next month.
Photo taken on March 19, 2023, shows police at the site of a house which was gutted by a fire in Nagano, central Japan, the previous day. (Kyodo)
NAGANO – A 32-year-old man was arrested Saturday for arson after a fire gutted the house where he lived in the central Japan prefecture of Nagano, apparently killing three of his family members, police said.
Three bodies believed to be those of the man’s father, Hitoshi Nakamura, mother and grandmother in her 90s were found after the fire at the two-story house.
The man, whose identity was withheld by police, and his brother both escaped the fire without major injuries.
The fire broke out in the early hours of Saturday and was extinguished in about three hours.
The man has admitted to setting fire to his house, according to the police.
The alleged arsonist worked at a facility for people with disabilities, NHK reported, saying that the police are not disclosing his name on the grounds that he has a disability.
A Chinese tourist poses with her newly bought Thai student uniform in Bangkok on Mar. 7, 2023.
The new fad among some relatively young female Chinese tourists to Thailand for dressing like Thai school girls in uniform perplexed many Thais, including the local media which claim it is Thailand’s new soft power.
BBC Thai-language news service was among the local media reporting about it. It interviewed a 36-year-old female Chinese tourist on why she likes the uniform, and the answer was she feels young again and “wearing Thai school uniform made me feel pure.”
Her answer says a lot about how tourists have a strong tendency to idealize, or at least stereotype, the host country and culture. It is well-known in Thailand that there is a persistent movement among male and female school students in calling for the abolition of school uniforms as they regard them as a symbol of coercion, lack of free will, and a straight-jacket society.
That is not how the Chinese tourists see these Thai school uniforms, however. As a tourist, you can choose to idealize certain cultural artifacts of the host society whichever way you like. When you are a tourist, the penchant is for an idealized and stereotyped version of the society you are visiting.
This is simply because most people spend time and money to travel and visit another country to have a good time and relax so they more often than not see things through pink-tinted lenses. (There are also those who see things in the host society with exaggerated negativity and distrust, such as some westerners strongly believe all Thai cab drivers will try to cheat them, but it can also be argued that both ends of the spectrum still constitute a form of stereotype nonetheless.)
Think about Paris syndrome as another example. Some Japanese tourists who flock to Paris suffer from Paris syndrome because they have painted an idealized image of Paris as arguably the most romantic and civilized city in the Western world. When they were met with rude waiters, dog manure, olfactory of canine urine, relatively dirty metro that comes with pick pocketers as fellow commuters, moody Parisians, and suddenly it was beyond culture shock and threw them into a state of disillusionment and trauma.
Back to Thailand, we do selectively appropriate many aspects of foreign cultures and artifacts as well. Some (increasingly old) Thais enjoy dressing up like cowboys from hat to boot and indulge in American country music. To them, the history of American oppression against native Americans in the Wild West is irrelevant – they selectively imagine themselves as cool cowboys and do not associate their cosplay with any guilt related to American historical oppression against native Americans.
Many younger Thais meanwhile adore all things K-pop and by extension South Korean society, but too little is being discussed about the fact that women, and particularly LGBTQ people, continue to face substantial discrimination, making the society far from its idealized version often perceived by young Thais or portrayed by mainstream K-pop industry.
Like a heavily edited or photoshop picture, we see what we want to see and would not let some inconvenient reality get into the way of our enjoyment over the idealization of certain aspects of foreign culture and society. Reality and certain facts are just too inconvenient for some tourists, both armchair and non-sedentary ones, or even irrelevant to their enjoyment of foreign countries and cultures.
Security camera shows the victim being pulled into a van in Bangkok's Thonglor area on Mar. 16, 2023.
BANGKOK — Police on Sunday said three Chinese nationals were arrested in connection with the abduction of a compatriot in Bangkok earlier this week.
Deputy metropolitan police commander Noppasin Poonsawat said three suspects, identified as Chinese nationals Ran Xiaoyong, Nie Lijiao, and Zeng Bo, were apprehended at a hotel in the border town of Aranyaprathet this morning. They were transferred to Bangkok and charged with extortion and unlawful detention.
Security camera footage shows the victim being lured to a van by a female suspect in front of a restaurant in Bangkok’s Thonglor area on Thursday night before two men approaching the victim and forcing her into the van.
The captors then restrained the victim and demanded a 200,000 USDT (6.8 million baht) ransom in cryptocurrency, which the victim eventually transferred 8,014 USDT (around 270,000 baht) and 250,000 yuan (1.2 million baht) to the captors’ accounts, police said.
As they were on the road, the captors also reached out to the victim’s boyfriend and demanded another 50,000 USDT (1.7 million baht) from him, which he paid the ransom. The victim was abandoned by her captors in front of a house in Bangkok’s Min Buri district on the next morning.
The suspects
Maj. Gen. Noppasin said the female suspect had befriended the victim for almost a year after learning about a large fund she received from expropriations in China. Investigators are looking into whether more people were involved in the plot or whether the case is connected to a larger human trafficking ring in Myanmar, he said.
There were cases of Chinese nationals being abducted by their countrymen in Thailand in the past. In November 2022, a Chinese national was arrested for the alleged abduction of a compatriot businessman in Pattaya, torturing him and cutting off his finger for a 30-million baht ransom.
Former President Donald J. Trump gestures to Vito Arujau, NCAA wrestling champion at the 133 lb class, at the NCAA Wrestling Championships, Saturday, March 18, 2023, in Tulsa, Okla. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump claimed on Saturday that his arrest is imminent and issued an extraordinary call for his supporters to protest as a New York grand jury investigates hush money payments to women who alleged sexual encounters with the former president.
Even as Trump’s lawyer and spokesperson said there had been no communication from prosecutors, Trump declared in a post on his social media platform that he expects to be taken into custody on Tuesday.
His message seemed designed to preempt a formal announcement from prosecutors and to galvanize outrage from his base of supporters in advance of widely anticipated charges. Within hours, his campaign was sending fundraising solicitations to his supporters, while influential Republicans in Congress and even some declared and potential rival candidates issued statements in his defense.
In a later post that went beyond simply exhorting loyalists to protest about his legal peril, the 2024 presidential candidate directed his overarching ire in all capital letters at the Biden administration and raised the prospect of civil unrest: “IT’S TIME!!!” he wrote. “WE JUST CAN’T ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEY’RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA!PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!”
It all evoked, in foreboding ways, the rhetoric he used shortly before the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. After hearing from the then-president at a Washington rally that morning, his supporters marched to the Capitol and tried to stop the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s White House victory, breaking through doors and windows of the building and leaving officers beaten and bloodied.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg is thought to be eyeing charges in the hush money investigation, and recently offered Trump a chance to testify before the grand jury. Local law enforcement officials are bracing for the public safety ramifications of an unprecedented prosecution of a former American president.
But there has been no public announcement of any time frame for the grand jury’s secret work in the case. At least one additional witness is expected to testify, further indicating that no vote to indict has yet been taken, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to publicly discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.
That did not stop Trump from taking to his social media platform to say “illegal leaks” from Bragg’s office indicate that “THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK.”
This image shows a screenshot from the Truth Social network account of former President Donald Trump, posted on Saturday, March 18, 2023. (AP Photo)
A Trump lawyer, Susan Necheles, said Trump’s post was “based on the media reports,” and a spokesperson said there had been “no notification” from Bragg’s office, though the origin of Trump’s Tuesday reference was unclear. The district attorney’s office declined to comment.
Trump’s aides and legal team have been preparing for the possibility of an indictment. Should that happen, he would be arrested only if he refused to surrender. Trump’s lawyers have previously said he would follow normal procedure, meaning he would likely agree to surrender at a New York Police Department precinct or directly to Bragg’s office.
It is unclear whether Trump’s supporters would heed his protest call or if he retains the same persuasive power he held as president. Trump’s posts on Truth Social generally receive far less attention than he used to get on Twitter, but he maintains a deeply loyal base. The aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot, in which hundreds of Trump loyalists were arrested and prosecuted in federal court, may also have dampened the passion among supporters for confrontation.
The indictment of Trump, 76, would be an extraordinary development after years of investigations into his business, political and personal dealings.
Former President Donald J. Trump poses for a photo with Vito Arujau, second from right, NCAA wrestling champion in the 133 lb class, and his family, at the NCAA Wrestling Championships, Saturday, March 18, 2023, in Tulsa, Okla. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Even as Trump pursues his latest White House campaign — his first rally is set for Waco, Texas, later this month and he shook hands and took selfies with fans during a public appearance Saturday evening at the NCAA Division I wrestling championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma — there is no question an indictment would be a distraction and give fodder to opponents and critics tired of the legal scandals that have long enveloped him.
Besides the hush money inquiry in New York, Trump faces separate criminal investigations in Atlanta and Washington over his efforts to undo the results of the 2020 election.
A Justice Department special counsel has also been presenting evidence before a grand jury investigating Trump’s possession of hundreds of classified documents at his Florida estate. It is not clear when those investigations will end or whether they might result in criminal charges, but they will continue regardless of what happens in New York, underscoring the ongoing gravity – and broad geographic scope – of the legal challenges facing the former president.
Trump’s post Saturday echoes one made last summer when he broke the news on Truth Social that the FBI was searching his Florida home as part of an investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents.
News of that search sparked a flood of contributions to Trump’s political operation, and on Saturday, Trump sent out a series of fundraising emails to his supporters, including one that claimed, “I’m not worried in the slightest.”
After his post, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy decried any plans to prosecute Trump as an “outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA” whom he claimed was pursuing “political vengeance.” Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking House Republican, issued a statement with a similar sentiment.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump fly a flag from a boat reading “Trust the Plan” outside of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, Saturday, March 18, 2023, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
The grand jury has been hearing from witnesses, including former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who says he orchestrated payments in 2016 to two women to silence them about sexual encounters they said they had with Trump a decade earlier.
Trump denies the encounters occurred, says he did nothing wrong and has cast the investigation as a “witch hunt” by a Democratic prosecutor bent on sabotaging the Republican’s 2024 campaign. Trump also has labeled Bragg, who is Black, a “racist” and has accused the prosecutor of letting crime in the city run amok while he has focused on Trump. New York remains one of the safest cities in the country.
Bragg’s office has apparently been examining whether any state laws were broken in connection with the payments or the way Trump’s company compensated Cohen for his work to keep the women’s allegations quiet.
Porn actor Stormy Daniels and at least two former Trump aides — onetime political adviser Kellyanne Conway and former spokesperson Hope Hicks — are among witnesses who have met with prosecutors in recent weeks.
Cohen has said that at Trump’s direction, he arranged payments totaling $280,000 to Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. According to Cohen, the payouts were to buy their silence about Trump, who was then in the thick of his first presidential campaign.
Cohen and federal prosecutors said Trump’s company paid him $420,000 as reimbursement for the $130,000 payment to Daniels and to cover bonuses and other supposed expenses. The company classified those payments internally as legal expenses. The $150,000 payment to McDougal was made by the then-publisher of the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer, which kept her story from coming to light.
Federal prosecutors agreed not to prosecute the Enquirer’s corporate parent in exchange for its cooperation in a campaign finance investigation that led to charges against Cohen in 2018. Prosecutors said the payments to Daniels and McDougal amounted to impermissible, unrecorded gifts to Trump’s election effort.
Cohen pleaded guilty, served prison time and was disbarred. Federal prosecutors never charged Trump with any crime.
News that law enforcement agencies were preparing for a possible indictment was first reported by NBC News.
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Eric Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Colleen Long in Washington, Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina and Sean Murphy in Tulsa, Oklahoma — contributed to this report.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhayev as he arrives to visit the Children's Art and Aesthetic center in Sevastopol, Crimea, Saturday, March 18, 2023. (Sputnik, Kremlin Press Service Pool Photo via AP)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea peninsula’s annexation from Ukraine on Saturday, the day after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader accusing him of war crimes.
Putin visited an art school and a children’s center that are part of a project to develop a historical park on the site of an ancient Greek colony, Russian state news agencies said.
The ICC accused him Friday of bearing personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine during Russia’s full-scale invasion of the neighboring country that started almost 13 months ago.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world denounced as illegal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has demanded that Russia withdraw from the peninsula as well as the areas it has occupied since last year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has traveled to Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea peninsula’s annexation from Ukraine. (Sputnik, Kremlin Press Service Pool Photo via AP)
Putin has shown no intention of relinquishing the Kremlin’s gains. Instead, he stressed Friday the importance of holding Crimea.
“Obviously, security issues take top priority for Crimea and Sevastopol now,” he said, referring to Crimea’s largest city. “We will do everything needed to fend off any threats.”
Putin took a plane to travel the 1,821 kilometers (1,132 miles) from Moscow to Sevastopol, where he took the wheel of the car that transported him around the city, according to Moscow-installed governor Mikhail Razvozhaev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, Governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhayev, center, listen to Metropolitan of Pskov and Porkhov Tikhon Shevkunov while visiting the Children’s Art and Aesthetic center in Sevastopol, Crimea, Saturday, March 18, 2023. (Sputnik, Kremlin Press Service Pool Photo via AP)
The ICC’s arrest warrant was the first issued against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. The court, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands, also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation.
The move was immediately dismissed by Moscow — and welcomed by Ukraine as a major breakthrough. However, the chances of Putin facing trial at the ICC are highly unlikely because Moscow does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction or extradite its nationals.
Despite the court’s action and its implication’s for Putin, the United Nations and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Saturday that a wartime deal that allowed grain to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia was extended, although neither said for how long.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov tweeted that the deal had been renewed for 120 days, the period that Ukraine, Turkey and the U.N. wanted. But Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Russian news agency Tass that Moscow agreed to a 60-day extension.
Russia and Ukraine are both major global suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other affordable food products that developing nations depend on. They signed separate agreements with the U.N. and Turkey last year to allow food to leave Ukraine’s blockaded ports.
Russia has complained that shipments of its fertilizers — which its deal was supposed to facilitate — are not getting to global markets. The country briefly pulled out of the agreement in November before rejoining and agreeing to a 120-day renewal.
Putin signed a law Saturday that imposes stiff fines for discrediting or spreading misleading information about volunteers or mercenaries fighting in Ukraine. The law calls for a fining individuals 50,000 rubles ($660) for a first offense and up to 15 years in prison for repeated offenses.
The measure mirrors one passed in the early days of the war that applied to speaking negatively about soldiers or the Russian military in general.
Fighters from the Wagner Group, a private Russian military company known for fierce tactics, have taken key roles in Ukraine, particularly in Russia’s grinding campaign to seize the eastern Donetsk province town of Bakhmut.
Members of the Russian biker group Nochniye Volki (the Night Wolves) drive with Russian national flags toward Sevastopol attending a motor rally marking the ninth anniversary of Crimea annexation from Ukraine, Crimea, Saturday, March 18, 2023. (AP Photo)
In Ukraine, authorities reported widespread Russian attacks between Friday night and Saturday morning. Writing on Telegram, the Ukrainian air force command said 11 out of 16 drones were shot down during attacks that targeted the capital, Kyiv, and the western Lviv province, among other areas.
The head of the Kyiv city administration, Serhii Popko, said Ukrainian air defenses shot down all drones heading for the capital. Lviv Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi said Saturday that three of six drones were shot down, with the other three hitting a district that borders Poland.
According to the Ukrainian air force, the attacks were carried out from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov and Russia’s Bryansk province, which also borders Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military reported that between Friday morning and Saturday morning, Russian forces launched 34 airstrikes, one missile strike and 57 rounds of anti-aircraft fire. It said falling debris hit southern Ukraine’s Kherson province, damaging seven houses and a kindergarten.
Russia is still concentrating the bulk of its offensive operations in Ukraine’s industrial east, focusing attacks on Bakhmut and other parts of Donetsk province.
Regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said one person was killed and three wounded when 11 towns and villages in the province were shelled Friday.
A damaged restaurant is seen after Russian shelling hit in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Saturday, March 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)
Further west, Russian rockets hit a residential area overnight in the city of Zaporizhzhia, the regional capital of the partially occupied province of the same name. No casualties were reported, but houses were damaged, Anatoliy Kurtev of the Zaporizhzhia City Council said.
British military officials said Saturday that Russia was likely to expand mandatory conscription to replenish its troops fighting in Ukraine. The U.K. Defense Ministry said in its latest analysis that deputies in the Russian Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, introduced a bill to change the draft ages for men to 21-30, from the current 18-27.
The ministry said many Russian men ages 18-21 claim exemptions from military service because they are enrolled in higher education institutions. The wider age range would mean they would have to serve eventually. British officials said the law would likely pass and take effect in January 2024.
Cambodia's Government Cabinet, dancers perform during an handing over ceremony at Peace Palace, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, March 17, 2023..(Kok Ky/Cambodia's Government Cabinet via AP)
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Centuries-old cultural artifacts that had been illegally smuggled out from Cambodia were welcomed home Friday at a celebration led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who offered thanks for their return and appealed for further efforts to retrieve such stolen treasures.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, center right, prays together with his minister of Culture and Fine Arts Phoeung Sackona, center left, in front of a sandstone statue at Peace Palace, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, March 17, 2023. (Kok Ky/Cambodia’s Government Cabinet via AP)
Many, if not all, of the items displayed at the government’s offices Friday had been looted from Cambodia during periods of war and instability, including in the 1970s when the country was under the brutal rule of the communist Khmer Rouge. Through unscrupulous art dealers, they made their way into the hands of private collectors and museums around the world.
A statement from the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts described the returned artifacts as embodying the “priceless cultural heritage and the souls of generations of Khmer ancestors.”
In this photo provided by Kok Ky/Cambodia’s Government Cabinet, jewelries are displayed during a handing over ceremony at Peace Palace, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, March 17, 2023. (Kok Ky/Cambodia’s Government Cabinet via AP)Jewelries are displayed during a handing over ceremony at Peace Palace, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, March 17, 2023. (Kok Ky/Cambodia’s Government Cabinet via AP)
The statement credited the items’ return to “tremendous cooperation and support” from public and private institutions, national and international experts, and close relations with other countries through bilateral, multi-lateral and international institutions, including UNESCO.
It also singled out cooperation between the Cambodian and U.S. governments. Many of the items returned so far have come from the United States.
The returned items included important Hindu and Buddhist statues, as well as ancient jewelry from the once-mighty empire of Angkor.
In February, a spectacular collection of jewelry was returned to Cambodia from the estate of antiquities collector and dealer Douglas Latchford, who was accused of buying and selling looted artifacts. The 77 pieces of jewelry included crowns, necklaces, bracelets, belts, earrings and amulets.
An ancient crown returned to Cambodia from Britain. (Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts/Handout via Xinhua)An ancient crown returned to Cambodia from Britain. (Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts/Handout via Xinhua)
U.S. prosecutors indicted him in 2019 on charges related to alleged trafficking in stolen and looted Cambodian antiquities. Latchford, who died in 2020, had denied any involvement in smuggling.
In remarks to an invited audience that included U.S. Ambassador W. Patrick Murphy, Hun Sen said that some Cambodian sculptures are still missing and held in foreign countries, and he appealed for their return in the spirit of goodwill. He said his government is determined to use all means at its disposal to secure those stolen artifacts, including negotiations and legal action.
The 10th-century statue of Skanda atop a peacock, upper, is displayed during a handing over ceremony at Peace Palace, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, March 17, 2023. (Kok Ky/Cambodia’s Government Cabinet via AP)
“The United States joins Cambodians in celebrating the return of looted artifacts back to their rightful home in the Kingdom,” said a statement from the U.S. Embassy.
“For 20 years the United States has worked to protect, preserve, and honor Cambodia’s rich cultural heritage with local partners, American academic institutions, and nonprofit organizations,” it said. “Through a long-standing U.S.-Cambodia cultural property agreement, the United States has facilitated the return of over 100 priceless antiquities.”
