High-level defection: why N. Korean diplomatic family chose freedom

Yahoo – AFP, Kim Il-sung, March 1, 2023 

Born into an elite North Korean family with ties to the ruling dynasty, Oh Hye Son grew up believing she was "special" -- but then she tasted freedom overseas and decided to defect. 

Most of the tens of thousands of North Koreans who have escaped repression and poverty at home make an arduous, high-risk journey across the country's land border with China, where they face arrest and possible deportation. 

Oh's family's defection was less dangerous but equally as wrenching: she convinced her husband Thae Yong Ho, then deputy ambassador at North Korea's London embassy, to give up their privileged place in the Pyongyang regime for the sake of their children. 

"I wanted to never return to North Korea and questioned why North Koreans had to live such a hard life," she told AFP in an interview in Seoul, where she now lives. 

Years of postings across Europe -- in Denmark, Sweden, and Britain -- exposed the family to a different life, she said, adding that when she first arrived in London she thought: "If there is paradise, this must be it". 

Oh, who recently published a Korean-language memoir, was once part of Pyongyang aristocracy -- a descendent of a famed North Korean general who fought alongside leader Kim Il Sung against the Japanese in the 1930s. 

But despite this impeccable pedigree, she still "lived in fear of power", she said. 

"No one except the Kim family had privileges, and as my children learned about freedom and democracy when they lived abroad, I realised there was no future for them in North Korea," she added. 

NHS love 

Oh's eldest son Thae Juhyok had chronic health problems including nephrotic syndrome, a condition which can cause life-threatening kidney problems if not treated. 

Getting that treatment was near impossible in Pyongyang's crumbling health system -- one of the world's worst -- where doctors had to be bribed to do anything and crucial medicines were lacking. 

Oh said it was eye-opening when the family first arrived in London in 2004 and became eligible for the National Health Service. 

Her son was soon able to get free treatment at one of the best medical facilities in the city, she said, adding that her children also went to British schools, where they settled in well. 

"The children grew up so bright in England, in a society that respected them," she said. 

It was a stark contrast to life in Pyongyang, to which they returned in 2008 after her husband's first London posting ended. 

Juhyok attended the Pyongyang Medical University, but instead of studying he was put to work on a construction site hauling cement, Oh said. 

North Korea is beset by labour shortages across economic sectors and it is common for the government to order students, even schoolchildren, to do manual labour as a demonstration of loyalty. 

If one fails to comply, the government reportedly withholds food rations or imposes taxes, according to a 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report published by the US State Department. 

As her overseas-raised children began questioning the corruption and injustice they observed in North Korea, Oh realised it would be impossible for them to fully integrate into Pyongyang society. 

"They had completely different values," she said. 

"It was then that I began thinking that if I ever had a chance to go overseas again, I will not return." 

Escape 

Oh's chance came when her husband was again posted to London as the deputy ambassador, and she convinced him to defect as she did not want to be "resented by her children in the future". 

She had hoped the North Korean regime would collapse after the death of Kim Jong Il, the father and predecessor of current leader Kim Jong Un, and was crushed when his son emerged as the third generation of Kims to rule. 

"In North Korea, you existed -- from morning to night -- for the sake of the Kim family," Oh said. 

Thae became the first defector to be elected to South Korea's parliament, where he is now a high-profile lawmaker for the conservative People Power Party. 

Oh loves her new life in Seoul, but is haunted by thoughts of her mother and siblings left behind in North Korea, which is known to punish defectors' family members. 

She can't check in with them: civilian contact is banned between the two Koreas, although some defectors have used intermediaries to smuggle Chinese mobile phones across the border. 

Oh has not managed to contact her family, but she once glimpsed her brother-in-law when he was part of an official North Korean delegation that visited Seoul in 2018 during a rare bout of diplomacy. 

It gave her hope that her relatives had not been purged by the Kim regime as a result of her family's escape. 

"Will they resent me? Will they envy me? Or will they silently cheer for me?" she said, wiping away tears.

Dubai ruler ordered abduction of daughters: UK judge

Yahoo – AFP, Phil HAZLEWOOD, March 5, 2020

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, 70, applied to the UK's highest court to
block the publication of two judgments in the case against his wife (AFP Photo/
KARIM SAHIB)

London (AFP) - Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum ordered the abduction of two of his daughters and subjected his former wife to a "campaign of fear and intimidation", forcing her to flee to London with their two children, according to a British court ruling made public on Thursday.

Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, 45, fled the United Arab Emirates last April having become "terrified" of her husband, who is also the vice-president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates.

Soon afterwards, the 70-year-old sheikh applied for their two children -- a son aged eight and a 12-year-old daughter -- to be returned to the Gulf kingdom.

But Princess Haya, a half-sister of Jordan's King Abdullah II, applied for the children to be made wards of court and filed a non-molestation order for herself.

She asked during a London hearing for a judge to make findings of fact about the kidnapping and forced detention of two of the sheikh's adult daughters from a previous marriage.

She also alleged she had faced a "campaign of fear and intimidation" since she left last year.

Seized and detained

Sheikh Mohammed, who owns the Godolphin horse racing stable, tried to prevent two of the court rulings being made public.

But the Supreme Court rejected his application on Thursday morning, allowing them to be published.

Judge Andrew McFarlane, who heads the Family Division of the High Court of England and Wales, found Sheikh Mohammed "ordered and orchestrated" the abduction of Sheikha Shamsa from the UK city of Cambridge when she was 19 in August 2000.

She was forcibly returned to Dubai and "has been deprived of her liberty for much, if not all, of the past two decades", he said.

He also found Shamsa's sister, Latifa, 35, was seized and returned to Dubai twice, in 2002 and again in 2018.

She was held "on the instructions of her father" for more than three years after the first attempted escape. Her second made global headlines in March 2018.

Claims by a friend of Latifa who helped her escape that Indian special forces boarded a boat off the Indian coast on March 4, 2018 before she was returned to Dubai were also found to be proven.

"She was pleading for the soldiers to kill her rather than face the prospect of going back to her family in Dubai," McFarlane said.

"Drawing these matters together I conclude, on the balance of probability, that Latifa's account of her motives for wishing to leave Dubai represents the truth.

"She was plainly desperate to extricate herself from her family and prepared to undertake a dangerous mission in order to do so."

Secret divorce

Lawyer Charles Geekie, representing Princess Haya, said at a hearing last November that his client had been left anonymous notes threatening the lives of her son and daughter.

She also told the court of "deliberate threats" and even of a helicopter landing outside her house when the pilot told her he had come to take a passenger to a desert prison.

The court was also told the sheikh divorced Princess Haya without her knowledge on February 7, 2019 -- the 20th anniversary of the death of her father king Hussein of Jordan.

Judge McFarlane said it was "clear the date will have been chosen... to maximise insult and upset to her".

He agreed with Geekie that events since 2000 showed "a number of common themes, at the core of which is the use of the state and its apparatus to threaten, intimidate, mistreat and oppress with a total disregard for the rule of law".

"I also accept Mr Geekie's submission that these findings, taken together, demonstrate a consistent course of conduct over two decades where, if he deems it necessary to do so, the father will use the very substantial powers at his disposal to achieve his particular aims."

- One-sided -

In a statement after the publication of the rulings, Sheikh Mohammed strongly denied the claims and said the case involved "highly personal and private matters relating to our children".

He said he appealed to the Supreme Court "to protect the best interests and welfare of the children".

"The outcome does not protect my children from media attention in the way that other children in family proceedings in the UK are protected," he said, calling the process one-sided.

"As a head of government, I was not able to participate in the court's fact-finding process."

Related Articles:

Dubai ruler's wife seeks UK forced marriage protection order for children

Princess Haya, who is battling her husband, Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, in a UK court, is the third princess who has sought to escape the Gulf emirate in recent years https://t.co/u2kIiH02Kc pic.twitter.com/Pbf5LGygPD

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 31, 2019

China replaces top envoy to crisis-hit Hong Kong

Yahoo – AFP, January 4, 2020

Luo Huining (pictured) has replaced Wang Zhimin as China's top envoy to Hong 
Kong (AFP Photo/RAVEENDRAN)

Beijing (AFP) - China has replaced its top envoy to Hong Kong, state media reported on Saturday, the most significant personnel change by Beijing since pro-democracy protests erupted in the city nearly seven months ago.

The removal of the head of the Liaison Office, which represents the central government in semi-autonomous Hong Kong, comes as the city grapples with its biggest political crisis in decades.

"Wang Zhimin has been dismissed from his position as head of the Liaison Office" and replaced by Luo Huining, state broadcaster CCTV said, without giving details.

Millions have come out on the streets since June last year in a wave of protests sparked by opposition to a now-abandoned proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China.

But they soon morphed into a larger demand for greater democratic freedoms in the starkest challenge to Beijing since the former British colony was returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

The demonstrations have often descended into violent clashes between hardcore protesters and the police, and Wang had condemned them as "rioters" that needed to be brought to justice.

Hong Kong has been shaken by nearly seven months of pro-democracy protests 

(AFP Photo/ISAAC LAWRENCE)

The Liaison Office, whose director is the highest-ranking Chinese political official in Hong Kong, was targeted in July by protesters throwing eggs and graffitiing the building.

Hong Kong is ruled under the "one country, two systems" principle, which gives the territory rights unseen on mainland China -- but demonstrators say these are being steadily eroded by an increasingly assertive central government in Beijing.

Protesters are demanding fully free elections to elect the city's leadership, amnesty for the thousands arrested during the protests, and an inquiry into the conduct of the police.

'Positive development'

While the extradition bill that started the protests was eventually withdrawn, the Chinese government and the Hong Kong administration have since refused further concessions.

In November, Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp scored a landslide victory in a municipal-level vote -- seen as a referendum on the city's Beijing-backed government.

China has denied allegations that it is clamping down on the city's freedoms, has dismissed the movement's political grievances and painted it as a foreign-backed plot.

It has also continued to back Hong Kong's deeply unpopular leader Carrie Lam.

Protesters in Hong Kong are demanding an inquiry into the conduct of the police (AFP 

Photo/Philip FONG)

The city leader said in a statement that she had "no doubt" the new head of the liaison office would help "promote the integration of Hong Kong into the overall development of the nation and the positive development of the relationship between the Mainland and Hong Kong".

She also thanked Wang, who had served for years in a number of positions at the Liaison Office before his appointment as its director, for giving her government "staunch support" and "a lot of confidence and encouragement" during the crisis.

In early December, following media reports that Beijing was considering replacing him, Wang had vowed to continue.

Luo, his replacement, previously served as governor of Qinghai province, and was also appointed to senior Communist Party positions in Qinghai and Shanxi provinces, according to state-run China Daily.

His Hong Kong appointment comes a week after he was made vice-chairman of Financial and Economic Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, China's national legislature, according to China Daily.

Vietnam arrests two in UK truck death investigation

Yahoo – AFP, 1 November 2019

Many of the 39 victims are believed to be Vietnamese after families said
their loved ones were missing

Vietnam police have arrested two people for trafficking in connection with the death of 39 migrants whose bodies were found in a truck in Britain, many of them feared to be Vietnamese.

The move comes after British police arrested four people over the tragedy and are now seeking to question two brothers from Northern Ireland who have links to the road-haulage and shipping business.

The victims were initially identified by British police as Chinese, but many are now believed to be Vietnamese after families in central Vietnam said their loved ones had not been heard from.

Vietnam said Friday two people were arrested for alleged involvement in the case, which has exposed the dangers of illegal people-smuggling from the Asian country to Europe.

Many of the suspected victims came from central Ha Tinh province, where the two arrests were made in connection with "the case of 39 dead bodies found in a container truck in the UK", according to a statement on the local police website.

The pair were accused of "organising and brokering for other people to go abroad and stay abroad illegally", it said.

The bodies of the victims were found in a refrigerated trailer on October 23 in an industrial park in Essex, east of London. Police said the truck came from a Belgian port.

The 25-year-old driver of the truck, Maurice Robinson from Northern Ireland, has been charged with 39 counts of manslaughter.

He was also charged with conspiracy to traffic people, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration, and money-laundering.

Prosecutors said he was involved in an international trafficking ring as he appeared in court this week.

Three others who were arrested have been released on bail.

Several Vietnamese families said they heard from relatives before their crossing into the UK but have had no contact since.

Vietnam has said Britain sent documents to help with the complicated task of identifying the bodies, many of whom were believed to be carrying falsified passports.

DNA samples have also been taken from relatives in Vietnam to help with the process.

But so far none of the dead have been officially identified.

The truck tragedy has plunged communities in central Vietnam into mourning, as families desperately wait for news.

The region has long been a source of illegal migration to Britain for people seeking better lives.

Migrants often work in nail bars or cannabis farms, heavily indebted and vulnerable to exploitation.

British detectives probing the deaths of 39 Asian migrants in a refrigerated truck near London renewed their appeal for two brothers in the haulage business to help with the investigation https://t.co/YZlaMa3sCq

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 1 november 2019

Storm forces William and Kate's royal plane to abandon Islamabad landing

Yahoo – AFP, 17 October 2019

Prince William and his wife Kate explored Lahore's famous Badshahi Mosque
-- one of the world's largest

A fierce storm in Islamabad forced a plane carrying Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate to abandon two landings before returning to Lahore late Thursday, reporters travelling with them said, in a dramatic end to a day of cracking cricket balls and touring the towering historic Badshahi Mosque.

The Voyager, a British Royal Air Force jet transporting the couple during their five-day tour of Pakistan, was caught in one of the thunderous storms that periodically rock the capital in October.

"The pilot circled for an hour but the lightening - and turbulence - was so bad we had to fly back," tweeted the Daily Mail's royal correspondent Rebecca English, who was on board the plane.

"Few of us have experienced turbulence as bad as that," she added.

"If I'm honest ... that was the most nervous I've ever felt in a plane," added ITV royal correspondent Chris Ship.

Daily Telegraph correspondent Ben Farmer said the pilot had tried to land twice, once at a military base in the garrison city of Rawalpindi adjacent to Islamabad, and once at Islamabad International before abandoning the attempt and returning to Lahore, some 270 kilometres (170 miles) flying distance away.

However all on board appeared to be safe, with English tweeting that Prince William -- himself a pilot -- had joked with the press pack that he had been flying.

English said it was unclear when they would be able to take off again. There was no immediate statement from Kensington Palace.

Sporting visitors

The mid-air flight drama came after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had spent the day exploring Lahore, Pakistan's cultural capital.

The royal couple kicked off their fourth day in Pakistan with a visit to the SOS Children's Village orphanage, where Kate gave a brief speech along with a short greeting in Urdu and celebrated children's birthdays.

The royal couple have spent much of the trip promoting 

various causes, from girls' education to conservation

"Earlier this year I talked about the fact that it takes a village to raise a child. The village we've seen here today is the best representation of that ideal that I could have possibly imagined," she said.

The Duke and Duchess later took to the crease at the National Cricket Academy, where they both hit a few runs as they played alongside a host of current and former cricket stars, including current bowling coach Waqar Younis.

After an outfit change, the duo headed to Lahore's famous Badshahi Mosque -- one of the world's largest.

William sported a cream-coloured linen suit and Kate donned a light green shalwar kameez, wrapping her hair in a matching headscarf and walking in stockinged feet to show her respect.

William's mother, the late Princess Diana, caused a controversy at the same mosque in 1991 when she wore an above-the-knee dress, sparking a backlash from some Muslim leaders who argued she should have covered up.

The couple rounded off the trip with a visit to the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, founded by Prime Minister Imran Khan, where Diana is remembered fondly for helping raise money for the facility in the 1990s.

Kensington Palace has called the Cambridges' five-day trip, which ends Friday, their "most complex" tour to date as the royals seek to boost ties between Britain and the second largest country in the Commonwealth.

The couple have spent much of the trip promoting various causes, from girls' education to conservation and climate change awareness as they criss-crossed the country.

Security has improved dramatically since the army intensified a crackdown on militant groups in 2015, with several countries changing their travel warnings for Pakistan as a result, and Islamabad eager to promote both tourism and foreign investment.

There are promising signs, such as the British Airways return earlier this year after more than a decade, and the slow but steady revival of international cricket.

All smiles as Britain's William and Kate meet Pakistan PM Khan

Yahoo – AFP, Aamir QURESHI and Muhammad DAUD, October 15, 2019

Britain's Prince William (R), Duke of Cambridge, and his wife Kate arrived in
an auto-rickshaw for a reception in Islamabad (AFP Photo/Aamir QURESHI)

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan gave a warm welcome in Islamabad Tuesday to Britain's Prince William, the son of his late friend Princess Diana, who is on his first official trip to the country with his wife Kate.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were greeted with handshakes by a smiling Khan, who first met William when the prince was a young boy, on the steps at the prime minister's house in the capital.

Pakistani media simultaneously aired archive images of Diana with Khan -- then a World Cup-winning cricketer who had just launched his political career -- during her own visits to Pakistan more than 20 years ago.

During the meeting with the royals, Khan recalled "the love and affection among the people of Pakistan for Princess Diana" thanks to her support for charitable causes, according to a statement released by his office.

Kate wore a traditional Pakistani dress in vibrant green and white with a dark green dupatta, or long scarf, draped over her shoulder -- a change from earlier in the day when she was dressed in a royal blue shalwar kameez, the traditional Pakistani long shirt with trousers.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan (L) recalled "the love and affection" Pakistanis 

felt for Princess Diana, the mother of Prince William (R), who is visiting with his 

wife Kate (AFP Photo/STR)

But the Duke opted for Western attire again -- a dark suit and tie.

The couple lunched with Khan before he headed to Saudi Arabia Tuesday afternoon, where he is expected to continue his mission to help defuse tensions in the Gulf by facilitating talks between Riyadh and Tehran.

It came after a busy morning for Kate and William, the first British royals to come to Pakistan since William's father Charles visited with his wife Camilla in 2006.

The couple launched their five-day tour of the deeply patriarchal South Asian country by signalling their support for women's education with a visit to a girls' school in Islamabad.

They dropped in on a mathematics class, where televised images showed them sitting with some of the young students, whose blue uniforms matched the Duchess's dress.

A video tweeted by a British reporter accompanying the couple showed William smiling as he was told the girls were "big fans" of his mother, who died in a car crash in 1997.

Kate and William are the first British royals to come to Pakistan since William's 

father Charles visited with his wife Camilla in 2006 (AFP Photo/Aamir QURESHI)

"That's very sweet of you," he could be heard saying in the video. "I was a big fan of my mother too."

Tight security

William and Kate spent roughly half an hour at the government-run school before they were waved off by smiling students.

They were whisked away under heavy security to visit the Margallas, the Himalayan foothills that nestle Islamabad, where they could be seen walking with conservationists in the sun.

Kensington palace said they worked with more children from local schools to set up a leopard camera trap in the hills.

William and Kate also met President Arif Alvi, and attended an evening reception where the couple arrived in a colourful rickshaw at the foot of the Pakistani national monument.

At the reception, William donned a traditional South Asian dark-green sherwani, while Kate wore a green sequined evening gown with a matching scarf.

The British royal couple launched their five-day tour of deeply patriarchal Pakistan

 by signalling their support for women's education with a visit to a girls' school in 

Islamabad (AFP Photo/Aamir QURESHI)

"The UK and Pakistan share unique bonds and so it will always be in our best interests for you to succeed," William told the reception.

"You can rely on us to keep playing an important role as a key partner and your friend."

Security is extremely tight for the five-day trip, during which the couple is set to visit Pakistan's second-largest city Lahore -- once the capital of the Mughal Empire -- as well as the mountainous north and the region near the border with Afghanistan in the west.

Meeting young people and promoting education is one of their priorities for the trip, Kensington Palace has said. Nearly half of Pakistani school-age children -- 23 million -- do not attend school, UNICEF says.

Girls are particularly sidelined from education in a country where women have struggled for basic rights for decades.

For many in Pakistan, nostalgia for Diana has lain heavily over the trip.

She first charmed Pakistanis with an official visit in 1991, and is remembered fondly for her efforts on later private visits to help Khan raise money for a charity cancer hospital.

Archbishop of Canterbury prostrates over 1919 India massacre

Yahoo – AFP, 11 September 2019

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby paid tribute to the hundreds of people
killed at Amritsar in 1919

Britain has never apologised for the 1919 massacre at Amritsar in India but the head of the Church of England prostrated himself to say sorry in a personal capacity and "in the name of Christ".

British troops fired on thousands of unarmed men, women and children in Amritsar on April 13, 1919, killing 379 people according to colonial-era records. Indian figures put the total closer to 1,000.

"I can't speak for the British Government as I am not an official of the British Government. But I can speak in the name of Christ," Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said as he visited the location in northern India on Tuesday.

"I am so ashamed and sorry for the impact of the crime committed. I am a religious leader, not a politician. As a religious leader, I mourn the tragedy we see here," he added at the site, known in India as Jallianwala Bagh.

Welby visited the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar

On Facebook he added that his visit aroused "a sense of profound shame at what happened in this place. It is one of a number of deep stains on British history. The pain and grief that has transcended the generations since must never be dismissed or denied."

The event 100 years ago marked a nadir in Britain's occupation of India, and served to boost Indian nationalism and harden support for independence.

In 1997 Britain's queen laid a wreath at a site during a tour of India. But her gaffe-prone husband Prince Philip stole the headlines by reportedly saying that the Indian estimates for the death count were "vastly exaggerated".

In 2013 David Cameron became the first serving British prime minister to visit Jallianwala Bagh. He described the episode as "deeply shameful" but stopped short of a public apology.

Ahead of centenary commemorations earlier this year, Cameron's since-resigned successor Theresa May on told parliament that Britain "deeply regretted what happened and the suffering caused." But she too didn't say sorry.

Dubai ruler's wife seeks UK forced marriage protection order for children

Yahoo – AFP, Robin MILLARD, 30 July 2019

Jordanian royal Princess Haya has long championed causes close to her
heart including youth and education

The estranged wife of the ruler of Dubai has applied for a UK forced marriage protection order relating to their children, a London court heard Tuesday.

Princess Haya, 45, a wife of 70-year-old United Arab Emirates Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, has applied for the order, as well as for wardship of their children, and a non-molestation order relating to herself, the High Court heard.

The couple are locked in a legal battle in London over the welfare of their two children.

At a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, judge Andrew McFarlane allowed media to report that Princess Haya, a Jordanian royal, had made the applications.

The court also heard that Sheikh Mohammed has applied to the High Court for the summary return of the children to Dubai.

Distinct from arranged marriages, forced marriages, in UK law, are those without the full and free consent of both parties.

A forced marriage protection order can be used to help someone who is being forced into marriage or who has been subjected to one, according to the government's official leaflet on the orders.

They can be applied for by the person in question, a relevant third party or anyone else with the permission of the court.

Applications must include details of how the applicant wants to be protected by the court, with the leaflet giving the example of stopping a person from being taken out of the UK to enter into a marriage without consent.

Foreign media excluded

After a previous hearing held in private in London, the couple issued a statement relating to the nature of the case.

"These proceedings are concerned with the welfare of the two children of their marriage and do not concern divorce or finances," it said.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (L) did not attend the court 

proceedings on Tuesday

It said the preliminary case management hearing would "deal with issues relating to how to proceed to a final hearing to determine the welfare issues".

Judge McFarlane -- who presides over the family division of the High Court of England and Wales -- decided Tuesday that only accredited journalists with media based within the jurisdiction of England and Wales were allowed to sit in on the proceedings.

Reporters from media organisations not based in the UK were in attendance but were told they could not hear the proceedings.

Princess Haya is a daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan and a half-sister of King Abdullah II of Jordan.

The princess was in court for the proceedings while Sheikh Mohammed was not.

She left the court accompanied by her lawyer Fiona Shackleton who represented Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, in his divorce from Diana, princess of Wales.

Sheikh Mohammed is being represented by Helen Ward, who acted for Guy Ritchie in his divorce from pop star Madonna and for former Formula One motor racing supremo Bernie Ecclestone in his divorce.

A small anti-Sheikh Mohammed demonstration took place outside the courts complex.

The two-day preliminary hearing is set to continue on Wednesday.

Princess Haya is locked in a legal battle with the ruler of Dubai over the welfare of their two children

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (L) did not attend the court proceedings on Tuesday.

Princess Haya, who is battling her husband, Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, in a UK court, is the third princess who has sought to escape the Gulf emirate in recent years https://t.co/u2kIiH02Kc pic.twitter.com/Pbf5LGygPD

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 31 juli 2019

Princess Haya of Jordan -- embroiled in a bitter legal battle with her husband the ruler of Dubai -- has received support from her brother in the form of a photo on Twitterhttps://t.co/GhS2xMO2oJ

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 1 augustus 2019

British PM voices regret over 1919 India Amritsar massacre

France24 – AFP, 10 April 2019

An Indian girl looks at a painting of the Amritsar massacre in 1919 when British troops
opened fire on Indian protesters in the northern city, killing 400 according to colonial
era records. India puts the toll much higher, at nearer 1,000 (AFP)

London (AFP) - British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday expressed regret for a massacre by British troops in India in 1919 but stopped short of a full apology.

"We deeply regret what happened and the suffering caused," May told the British parliament, as India prepares to mark the 100th anniversary of the killings.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, called for "a full, clear and unequivocal apology".

The April 13, 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, in which British troops opened fire on thousands of unarmed protesters, remains an enduring scar from British colonial rule in India.

Colonial-era records show about 400 people died in the northern city of Amritsar when soldiers opened fire on men, women and children in an enclosed area, but Indian figures put the toll at closer to 1,000.

Former British prime minister David Cameron described it as "deeply shameful" during a visit in 2013 but also stopped short of an apology.

A ceremony was due to take place at the site of the massacre on Saturday.