A Blacklist for Websites Backfires in Australia

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time. If you want to reduce citizens’ exposure to dangerous and illegal activities online, why not gather up all the URLs for sites that promote such acts — child pornography, extreme violence, weapon-making and so on — and have Internet Service Providers simply block them

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Thailand: Myanmar to allow refugees

Myanmar will allow Rohingya refugees back into the country if they can prove that they are Bengali, Thailand’s foreign ministry said. The agreement was reached in side talks between the Thai and Myanmese foreign ministers during the 14th ASEAN summit, a meeting of Southeast Asian nations held in Thailand over the weekend, said Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thairit Charungwat on Monday.

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Boat people to be sent back to Myanmar and uncertain fate

Scores of boat people who fled Myanmar and are now in Thailand are to be sent back despite human rights groups’ concerns they could be tortured or killed upon return. “They will have to be sent back, according to our law,” Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told CNN

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Author jailed for insulting Thai king freed

An Australian author imprisoned last month for insulting the king and crown prince of Thailand was on his way home Saturday after receiving a pardon from the king. Harry Nicolaides, 41, was arrested last August over his 2005 book titled “Verisimilitude.” The book includes a paragraph about the king and crown prince that authorities deemed a violation of a law that makes it illegal to defame, insult or threaten the crown

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Obama returns home for final stimulus plan push

President Obama took his economic stimulus proposal back on the road Thursday, urging final congressional passage of the now-$789 billion bill during a visit to a Caterpillar plant in the state that launched his political career. In an exclusive interview with CNN Thursday, Abhisit Vejjajiva said he could not pinpoint who in the government approved the practice, but said he was working on rectifying the problem. “It’s not exactly clear whose work it is,” Vejjajiva said.

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