South Korea
N. Korean diplomat defects
A senior North Korean diplomat based in London has defected to South Korea, becoming one of the highest Northern officials to do so, South Korea said Wednesday. Thae Yong Ho, minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, has arrived in South Korea with his family and is under the protection of the South Korean government, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said. Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-Hee said Thae told South Korean officials that he decided to defect because of his disgust with the government of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his yearning for South Korean democracy and worries about the future of his children.
Syria
Report: 17,000 detainees die
An international human rights group says more than 17,000 detainees have died in Syrian government detention facilities since the start of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar Assad. In a report released Thursday, Amnesty International estimates that more than 17,723 people have died in custody in Syria between March 2011 and the end of 2015. It said common methods of torture included forcibly contorting the victim’s body into a tire and flogging on the soles of the feet. The authorities also used electric shocks, rape and sexual violence.
Turkey
Release of inmates begins
Turkey began releasing inmates on Wednesday in an apparent move to reduce its prison population to make space for thousands of people who have been arrested as part of an investigation into last month’s failed coup. The discharges started just hours after the government issued a decree for the conditional release of some 38,000 prisoners under Turkey’s three-month long state of emergency that was declared following the coup. People convicted of murder, domestic violence, sexual abuse, terrorism and other crimes against the state are excluded from the measures.
VATICAN CITY
American to head new office
Pope Francis on Wednesday outlined his vision for how the Vatican will promote family and life issues, naming an American moderate to head the new Vatican office for families and laity and directing related institutes to give merciful care to spiritually wounded Catholics. Dallas Bishop Kevin Farrell, a former Legion of Christ priest whose brother is also a top Vatican official, now becomes the highest-ranking American at the Holy See. Francis appointed the Irish-born Farrell on Wednesday as he formally created the new Dicastery for the Laity, Families and Life, which combines several Vatican offices into one.
Compiled from wire reports