Thailand’s highest-profile opposition party will face two cases in the Constitutional Court that could lead to its dissolution as early as next month and strengthen the military-backed government’s grip on power.

The court accepted a new petition from the Election Commission on the Future Forward party taking loans from its leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, according to a statement released Wednesday. It is also set to rule on Jan. 21 for another case that accused the party of attempting to overthrow the constitutional monarchy.

Based on past cases, it is widely expected that the judges will disband the party. Such a development would pave the way for ruling coalition to poach Future Forward lawmakers and bolster its thin majority, making it easier to pass key legislation such as the annual budget bill in January.

Though less than two years old, Future Forward surged in March elections on a platform that includes rewriting the military-backed constitution, curbing the army’s inf..

(MOSCOW) — Ukrainian officials opened a criminal probe Wednesday after a passenger train from Russia arrived in Crimea via a new Russian-built bridge, arguing that the train illegally carried people across the Ukrainian border.

Earlier this week Russian President Vladimir Putin inaugurated the railway bridge to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. He said 14 million passengers and about 13 million tons of cargo are expected to move across the bridge next year. The train arrived in Sevastopol from St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city.

Russia annexed Crimea on the grounds that residents of the peninsula voted to join up with Russia. The annexation elicited widespread international censure including U.S. and European Union sanctions on Russia. Ukraine has blocked shipment of supplies via its territory to Crimea.

The Ukrainian government has repeatedly said the new bridge was built in violation of international laws. In October 2018, prosecutors opened a criminal c..

(KABUL, Afghanistan) — The Taliban ambushed a peace convoy in western Afghanistan and abducted 26 activists, members of a peace movement, a police spokesman said Wednesday.

The insurgents staged the ambush in the district of Bala Buluk in Farah province on Tuesday. The Taliban forced the six-vehicle convoy to a halt, then got into the cars and drove them and the activists to an unknown location, said the provincial police spokesman Mohibullah Mohib.

According to Mohib, a police operation is underway to locate and free the activists whose convoy was going village-to-village to rally for peace.

However, Bismillah Watandost of the People’s Peace Movement of Afghanistan, to which the activists belong, said that 27 of their members were abducted by the Taliban in the Farah assault. The different figures could not immediately be reconciled.

The Taliban, who have been active in Farah, have not claimed responsibility for the abductions. However, Watandost also said that tribal elders in th..

(VATICAN CITY) — Pope Francis assured the faithful on Christmas Eve that God loves everyone — “even the worst of us” — as he celebrated the joyous birth of Christ after a less-than-joyful year of scandals and opposition.

With a choir singing the classic Christmas hymn “The First Noel,” Francis processed down the center aisle of St. Peter’s Basilica late Tuesday and unveiled a statue of the newborn Jesus lying in a nativity scene at the foot of the altar.

Francis said the birth of Jesus, which Christians commemorate on Christmas Day, was a reminder of God’s unconditional love for everyone, “even the worst of us.”

“God does not love you because you think and act the right way,” he said. “You may have mistaken ideas, you may have made a complete mess of things, but the Lord continues to love you.”

At the same time though, he called for the faithful to allow themselves to be transformed by Jesus’ “crazy love” and to stop trying to change others.

“May we not wait for our neighbors to b..

(MOSCOW) — President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia has got a strong edge in designing new weapons and that it has become the only country in the world to deploy hypersonic weapons.

Speaking at a meeting with top military brass, Putin said that for the first time in history Russia is now leading the world in developing an entire new class of weapons unlike in the past when it was catching up with the United States.

The Russian leader noted that during Cold War times, the Soviet Union was behind the United States in designing the atomic bomb and building strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

“Now we have a situation that is unique in modern history when they are trying to catch up to us,” he said. “Not a single country has hypersonic weapons, let alone hypersonic weapons of intercontinental range.”

The Pentagon and the U.S. military services have been working on the development of hypersonic weapons in recent years, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper said..

Pirates attacked five ships over four days in one of the world’s busiest shipping channels, including two separate attempts on Monday, the Straits Times reported.

Just after midnight on Monday, pirates attacked a crude oil tanker in the Singapore Strait. Within two hours of that, there was another attack on a dry bulk carrier. They tied up crew members in both incidents but failed to rob the ships as alarms were triggered on both occasions, the newspaper reported late on Monday.

The ships in question in Monday’s attacks were 105,000 dead weight ton crude oil tanker Bamzi and dry bulk carrier Trust Star. Bamzi loaded from Basrah in Iraq in November and is headed for Qingdao in China, according to Bloomberg tanker tracking data. Trust Star sailed from Gothenburg in Sweden in November and is headed for Huanghua in China, according to the data.

There have been 29 piracy incidents in the Singapore Strait so far in 2019, the Straits Times said. The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combat..

(HONG KONG) — Clashes resumed in Hong Kong on Tuesday between police and anti-government protesters, some of them donned Santa Claus hats, as the more than six-month-long demonstrations look set to move into the new year.

Black-clad protesters smashed shop windows, while police responded with tear gas and the arrest of a still indeterminate number of demonstrators.

The protests demanding greater democratic rights show no sign of ending despite the overwhelming victory by anti-establishment candidates in elections for district representatives earlier this month.

Sunday’s protests were focused on the city’s mainly working class Mong Kok district. In response, police ran down suspected protesters in shopping malls and on subway trains.