Palestinian prisoner ends hunger strike
JERUSALEM – A Palestinian held without charge by Israel ended his unprecedented 66-day hunger strike Thursday, his lawyer said, after the Supreme Court ordered him released from detention.
The decision by Mohammed Allan to halt his fast appeared to avert a crisis over two controversial Israeli actions that threatened to unleash Palestinian violence as his health deteriorated.
Allan’s case tested a new Israeli law allowing fasting inmates to be force-fed, a measure that many doctors say amounts to torture. It also cast light on Israel’s use of administrative detention – the holding of suspects in special cases for long periods without charge.
Allan, 31, ended his strike Thursday, according to his lawyer, Jamil Khatib, who added that his client was still in serious but stable condition in Barzilai hospital in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.
Greek leader resigns after party revolt
ATHENS, Greece – Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned Thursday and called early elections, an attempt to get a new, stronger mandate to implement a three-year bailout program that sparked a rebellion within his radical left party.
In a televised address to the nation, Tsipras said his government had gotten the best deal possible for the country when it agreed to a $95 billion bailout from other eurozone countries.
The rescue was all that kept Greece from a disastrous exit from the euro but came with strict terms to cut spending and raise taxes – the very measures Tsipras had pledged to fight when he won elections in January.
His U-turn in accepting the demands by the country’s creditors led to outrage among hardliners in his Syriza party, with dozens voting against him during the bailout’s ratification in parliament last week, which was approved thanks to support from opposition parties.
Thai police clear 2 as bombing suspects
BANGKOK, Thailand – Thai police said Thursday they have cleared two suspects in the bombing of a Bangkok shrine after one of them turned himself in and said he was a tour guide and the other a Chinese tourist.
National police spokesman Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri said the two men “were most likely not involved.”
The two men were seen in a security video standing in front of the prime suspect as he removed a backpack and placed it on a bench at the crowded shrine shortly before the blast, and police had believed they were accomplices.
Thai authorities have given confusing statements about the investigation, with a military spokesman saying Thursday they believe the attack wasn’t the work of international terrorists a day after police issued an arrest warrant for the prime suspect that described him as a “foreign man.”
Associated Press
