NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
_1 Daniel Pearl case: A Pakistani provincial government Friday ordered a British Pakistani man whose conviction in the kidnapping and killing of a U.S. journalist was overturned to remain in custody for three months. The superintendent of Karachi’s Central Prison, Hasan Sehtoo, said he received an order from the Sindh provincial government saying Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh’s release would threaten public safety. The government ordered him detained as it appeals to the Pakistan Supreme Court to have his murder conviction reinstated. Saeed was found guilty of murder and kidnapping in the 2002 death of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and sentenced to death. On Thursday, the Sindh High Court overturned his murder conviction and sentenced him to seven years for the kidnapping.
_2 Myanmar crackdown: Authorities have arrested a prominent editor on terrorism charges for publishing an interview with a rebel army spokesman, and Friday they were seeking two more editors on similar charges. In recent days, authorities have raided journalists’ homes and offices, interrogated reporters about their coverage and blocked websites that were reporting on armed conflict with ethnic groups. News sites run by the three editors were among those blocked under the government order. Rights activists said the government’s actions — including the arrest Monday of Nay Myo Lin, editor of Voice of Myanmar, an independent news site — were an attempt to reinstate authoritarian measures like those of Myanmar’s former military regime.
_3 Statue dispute: A district in the Czech capital, Prague, went ahead Friday with a plan to remove the statue of a Soviet World War II commander. The Russian embassy condemned the move, calling it a “demolition.” Marshall Ivan Stepanovic Konev led forces that liberated Prague from the Nazi occupation in 1945. Russia protested when an explanatory text about Konev’s role in crushing the 1956 antiSoviet uprising in Hungary and preparing the 1968 Sovietled invasion of Czechoslovakia was attached to the statue.
_4 Poland politics: Uncertainty deepened in Poland on Friday over how and when the country can move forward with a presidential election amid the coronavirus pandemic. President Andrzej Duda has been leading polls as he vies for a second fiveyear term in the vote, which was initially set for May 10. Parliament had been set to vote Friday on a proposal for balloting by mail. However, those plans were thrown into disarray when Jaroslaw Gowin, who leads a faction in the conservative governing coalition, said his group refused to accept any kind of May election. Borys Budka, head of the centrist opposition Civic Platform, called on the government to declare a state of emergency, which could resolve the problem because it would automatically delay the election until 90 days after the state of emergency ends.
_5 Hunger striker dies: A member of a popular folk music group that is banned in Turkey died on the 288th day of a hunger strike she and a colleague started while imprisoned to protest the government’s treatment, according to a post on the group’s Twitter account. Grup Yorum said singer Helin Bolek, 28, died Friday at a home in Istanbul where she had been staging the hunger strike. Grup Yorum, known for its protest songs, is a folk collective with rotating band members. It has been prohibited from performing in Turkey since 2016, and authorities have jailed some of its members. The government accuses Grup Yorum of links to the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation PartyFront. Hunger strikers in Turkey traditionally refuse food but consume liquids that prolong their protests.