Alessandra Ambrosio Yoga
Alessandra Ambrosio Yoga
Alessandra Ambrosio Yoga
Alessandra Ambrosio Yoga
The Kazakh and Belarusian crew of a plane caught transporting arms from North Korea may face the death penalty, a Thai paper said on Wednesday, citing police.
The Il-76 cargo plane, carrying about 40 tons of weaponry, was seized after landing for refueling at Bangkok's Don Muang airport on December 12. Officials said the weapons included missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.
The paper quoted a senior police official as saying that the crew would be charged with the illegal possession of explosives, punishable by "from two years to death."
The plane's five crew members, one Belarus national and four Kazakhs, were taken to Bangkok's Klong Prem Central Prison after their arrest.
The Bangkok Post quoted investigators as saying the crew were planning to offload part of their cargo in Sri Lanka and the Middle East. However, the suspects reportedly refused to name the buyers or locations.
The plane's Belarusian commander earlier said that the plane had flown from Ukraine, and claimed that neither he nor the other crewmembers knew of the military nature of the cargo.
Mikhail Petukhov was earlier quoted by the Thai news agency TNA as saying the aircraft refueled in Azerbaijan, then in the United Arab Emirates, and then in Thailand while en route to Pyongyang. The plane's commander said the aircraft was scheduled to refuel in Thailand and Sri Lanka on its way back, after which the cargo was expected to be delivered to Ukraine.
Australia intends to introduce filters which will ban access to websites containing criminal content.
The banned sites will be selected by an independent classification body guided by complaints from the public, said Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.
A seven month trial in conjunction with internet service providers found the technology behind the filter to be 100% effective.
However, there has been opposition from some internet users.
Twitter users have been voicing their disapproval by adding the search tag "nocleanfeed" to their comments about the plans.
"Successful technology isn't necessarily successful policy," said Colin Jacobs, a spokesperson for Electronic Frontiers Australia, a non-profit organisation that campaigns for online freedom.
"We're yet to hear a sensible explanation of what this policy is for, who it will help, and why it is worth spending so much taxpayers' money on."
Mr Conroy said the filters included optional extras such as a ban on gambling sites which ISPs could choose to implement in exchange for a grant.
"Through a combination of additional resources for education and awareness, mandatory internet filtering of RC (refused classification)-rated content, and optional ISP-level filtering, we have a package that balances safety for families and the benefits of the digital revolution," he said.
The filter laws will be introduced in parliament in August 2010 and will take a year to implement.
'noble aims'
"Historical attempts to put filters in place have been effective up to a point," Dr Windsor Holden, principal analyst at Juniper Research, told BBC News.
The "noble aims" of the filter could be lost in its implementation, he warned.
"Clearly there is a need to protect younger and more vulnerable users of the net, but one concern is that it won't just be illegal websites that will be blocked," he added.
"You have to take extreme caution in how these things are rolled out and the uses to which they're put."
(From BBC)