Turkish offensive continues
Compiled from news services
BEIRUT — Turkey’s president vowed Monday to keep up the pressure against a U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia after his troops captured the Syrian town of Afrin, threatening to expand the military offensive into other Kurdish-held areas across northern Syria and even into neighboring Iraq.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared set on forcing Washington to reconsider its partnership with the Syrian Kurdish fighters, the main U.S. ally in the fight against the Islamic State group.
Turkey first launched its military operation in Syria in 2016, and Mr. Erdogan has repeatedly said it will not allow a “terror corridor” along its border — a reference to territories controlled by the Kurdish forces, which Turkey views as terrorists because of their links to Kurdish insurgents fighting inside Turkey.
Emboldened by Sunday’s capture of Afrin, Mr. Erdogan went even further on Monday, asserting that Turkish troops and allied Syrian forces would target territory that includes Kobani, a town that has become a symbol of the fight against the Islamic State militants.
Leader tightens grip
BEIJING — China’s parliament will vote Tuesday to establish a new anti-corruption agency with expanded powers to detain people for months at secret locations without access to lawyers, a move that experts said extends President Xi Jinping’s control but drastically undermines the rule of law and civil rights.
The National Supervision Commission is ranked above the judiciary in the country’s newly amended constitution, and expands Mr. Xi’s battle against corruption to cover not only Communist Party members but also managers of stateowned companies and institutions.
It is likely to be used to root out suspected graft and enforce strict ideological control and loyalty to the party and president, experts say.
Its provisions have provoked a surprising public outcry from China’s legal community, with scores of lawyers joining to warn of a “serious crisis” in the rule of law.
Ultimately, though, the Communist Party brushed those objections aside. The new body will be given the formal rubber-stamp of the National People’s Congress at the closing session of its annual meeting on Tuesday.
Cambodians protest
SYDNEY— Hong Lim, a dapper Australian politician, is not the first person you would imagine burning an effigy in a parking lot.
But the Cambodianborn legislator has now done so twice in recent weeks, after finding himself at the center of an unfolding battle over free speech and the reach of Cambodia’s authoritarian government into diaspora communities here.
In advance of a highprofile visit to Australia this weekend, Cambodia’s long-ruling prime minister, Hun Sen, prompted international outrage by publicly threatening violence against anyone who protested his presence by burning his effigy.
Mass protests and burnings took place this weekend in Melbourne and Sydney, where the Cambodian leader was attending the first formal gathering of Southeast Asian leaders in Australia.