Slym committed suicide after argument with wife: Thai cops
Bangkok, January 28
Karl Slym, Tata Motors Managing Director, apparently committed suicide after arguing with his wife and reading a note written by her that referred to "domestic problems", the Thai police said today.

Cairo, January 28
Ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi today struck a defiant tone during his trial over a jailbreak in 2011, insisting that he was still the “legitimate” head of the country.

Morsi’s jailbreak trial began at the Police Academy as he made his second appearance in court since the Army overthrew him on July 3 amid mass protests against his rule.

The 62-year-old leader is facing separate trials for inciting murder of protesters at the presidential palace in 2012, for espionage and conspiring with foreign groups like Hamas and Hezbollah to commit terror acts and for insulting the judiciary. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

As the trial began, Morsi started shouting: “I am the President of the republic, how can I be kept in a dump for weeks?” Morsi also shouted at the judge, telling him: “Who are you?” The judge simply said: “I’m the head of the criminal court” in response.

Morsi, along with other 21 Islamist defendants, spent the session in a sound-proof glass cage that was set up to prevent a repeat of the interruptions they made in their first court appearance last year, Ahram Online reported.

The rest of the defendants, including some 70 Palestinians, are on the run and being tried in absentia.

The ousted President told the court he had been flown to the trial location at 7 pm (local time) the previous night and insisted he is a political prisoner, not a detainee. “I am the legitimate President of the country,” he told the court “and this trial is not legal.” The detainees chanted “Down with military rule.” TV footage showed Morsi in white prison garb, nervously pacing back and forth in a cage in the courthouse, alongside other Islamist defendants who shouted “null, null” at the judges, whose legitimacy they refuse to acknowledge.

In a surprise move, he appointed Islamist thinker Mohamed Selim El-Awa as his defence lawyer, who shall represent him in this trial and all three other cases Morsi faces.

In a separate trial for inciting violence, Morsi has repeatedly refused to appoint a lawyer, saying he did not recognise the court’s authority.

The trial came a day after powerful Army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who ousted Morsi, was backed by the Army to run for presidency in the polls due by the end of April. — PTI 

Bangkok, January 28
Karl Slym, Tata Motors Managing Director, apparently committed suicide after arguing with his wife and reading a note written by her that referred to "domestic problems", the Thai police said today.

In a fresh twist to Slym's death in mysterious circumstances, the police said the three-page handwritten note found in the hotel room from which the 51-year-old executive plunged to his death, was written by his wife Sally.

The police said Slym could have taken the "extreme step" after reading the note by his wife of 30 years that mentioned "domestic problems".

"The note was written by Sally Slym. The couple had had an argument. It is her writing," Police Lieutenant Somyot Booyakaew told PTI, noting that it was not a suicide note by the victim. He did not give further details. Somyot reiterated that Slym's death was not a murder.

The police now believe Slym must have jumped through an open window in his 22nd floor suite at the Shangri-la Hotel as the opening was too small for a person to slip through and fall.

The suite has a huge sealed window overlooking the Chao Praya River and a small nearby window that can be opened. — PTI

Bangkok, January 28
The Thai government today brushed aside Election Commission’s proposal to postpone the controversial February 2 snap polls, even as the Opposition stepped up protests demanding premier Yingluck Shinawatra’s resignation.

The announcement was made by representatives of the government and the Election Commission (EC) after the two sides met here. The meeting was attended by caretaker Premier Yingluck, some of her Cabinet colleagues and all the Election Commission members.

Opposition protests continued today as shots were fired near the Bangkok army base where Yingluck was holding meetings. Hundreds of protesters massed outside the base.

Two people were injured in the protests, including an anti-government protester wounded by a gunshot.

About 100 activists of the the anti-government People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) members rallied in front of the Army Club today asking Yingluck to quit.

Deputy Prime Minister Phongthep Thepkanjana said the government felt the postponement of the election would not solve the problems. He admitted that the government and the EC disagreed on the proposal for the rescheduling of the polls.

During the talks, the Election Commission proposed to postpone the election for 120 days but after discussions it agreed with the government to hold the February 2 vote, deputy government spokesman told reporters. — PTI

Islamabad, January 28
Pakistan People’s Party leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari today sought military action to eradicate the Taliban as the option of talks with the militants has been “exhausted”.

“I think we have exhausted the option of talks...Dialogue is always an option but we have to have a position of strength. How do you talk from a position of strength? You have to beat them on the battlefield,” he said.

Any military action should not be confined to North Waziristan tribal region and operations should be conducted “to eradicate the Taliban from Pakistan”, the 25-year-old Bhutto family scion told BBC in an interview. — PTI

Hong Kong, January 28
A cull of 20,000 chickens was under way in Hong Kong today after the deadly H7N9 bird flu virus was found in poultry imported from mainland China, days before Lunar New Year.

Fears over avian flu have grown following the deaths of two men from the H7N9 strain in Hong Kong since December. Both had recently returned from mainland China. The number of human cases in China this month is 102 with 22 deaths, according to an AFP tally, and the worst-hit province of Zhejiang has closed live poultry markets in major cities there.

Officials wearing masks and protective suits piled dead chickens into black plastic bags at Hong Kong’s Cheung Sha Wan market today, where the virus was found, television footage showed.

Cheung Sha Wan, Hong Kong’s only wholesale poultry market, is now shut for 21 days for disinfection.

Vendors are unable to buy live chickens and farmers have nowhere to send their stock, leaving traders and shoppers disappointed in the holiday period.

Traditionally Hong Kongers buy a live chicken for Lunar New Year celebrations with family. “I wanted to buy one for my mother for the festival,” one shopper in the city’s bustling Wan Chai Road food market told AFP.

The move comes days after Hong Kong introduced widespread testing of imported live poultry following growing public concern over the safety of imports, particularly from the mainland. — AFP

Chicken off menu: A health worker throws a killed chicken to a rubbish bin after suffocating them by using carbon dioxide at a wholesale poultry market in Hong Kong on Tuesday. AP/PTI

New York, January 28
Every time smartphone users fire up apps such as Angry Birds and Google Maps, US and British spy agencies extract huge amounts of personal data, suggest documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

In their globe-spanning surveillance for terrorism suspects and other targets, the US National Security Agency and its British counterpart GCHQ have been trying to exploit mobile phone technology, a report in The New York Times said.

When a smartphone owner opens Angry Birds, spies could be lurking in the background to snatch personal details such as a user's “political alignment” and sexual orientation, the report said.

The NSA and Britain's Government Communications Headquarters were working together on how to collect and store data from dozens of smartphone apps by 2007, the report said, citing documents provided by Snowden to The New York Times, The Guardian and ProPublica.

Since then, the agencies have traded recipes for grabbing location and planning data when a target uses Google Maps, and for vacuuming up address books, buddy lists, telephone logs and the geographic data embedded in photographs when someone sends a post to the mobile versions of Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter, it said.

The eavesdroppers' pursuit of mobile networks has been outlined in earlier reports, but the secret documents offer more details of their ambitions for smartphones and the apps that run on them. The efforts were part of an initiative called "the mobile surge," according to a 2011 British document. — PTI