TRUMP TO HOST THAI JUNTA CHIEF AT WHITE HOUSE NEXT WEEK
WASHINGTON, D.C.: US President Donald Trump will host Thai junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha at the White House next Tuesday, in a personal coup for a Thai autocrat who was shunned by Barack Obama’s administration for his regime’s poor rights record. Ties between the long-time allies were strained by Prayut’s 2014 coup, which ushered in Thailand’s most authoritarian government in a generation. But Trump’s administration has started to reset relations with the junta government. Since he took office Washington has dispatched high-level US diplomats, including the secretary of state, whose predecessors under Obama had noticeably avoided the kingdom since the coup. “President Trump looks forward to reaffirming the relationship between the United States and a key partner and longstanding ally in Asia, the Kingdom of Thailand,” the White House said in a statement late Monday. “They will discuss economic trade and investment, and also exchange views on the regional situation,” said junta spokesman Major General Werachon Sukondhapatipak on Tuesday.
MODI PROMISES ELECTRICITY FOR EVERY INDIAN HOUSE
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed that every home in India will have electricity by December 2018 as he moves to shore up voter support amid doubts over his handling of the economy. The $2.5 billion scheme announced Monday would see the country’s 40 million households without electricity linked up to power for free. “Forty million of the total 250 million households still don’t have power, which means 25 percent of people are living in the 18th century. The government will electrify every household, whether it’s in a village, city or a remote region,” Modi said in a speech. Political analysts have called the initiative another move by the right-wing prime minister to bolster rural support ahead of national elections in 2019.
JAPAN KILLS 177 WHALES IN PACIFIC CAMPAIGN – GOVERNMENT
TOKYO: Japan said Tuesday it killed 177 whales off its northeast coast in an annual hunt that sparks anger among animal rights activists and others. Three ships which left port in June returned with 43 minke whales and 134 sei whales, the number stipulated beforehand, according to the country’s fisheries agency. Japan is a signatory to the International Whaling Commission’s (IWC) moratorium on hunting, but exploits a loophole which allows whales to be killed in the name of scientific research. The studies are “necessary to estimate the precise number of [sustainable] catches as we look to restart commercial whaling,” agency official Kohei Ito told Agence France-Presse. Norway—which does not consider itself bound by the 1986 moratorium—and Iceland are the only countries in the world that authorize commercial whaling.