Thailand: Thaksin's niece runs for premier

Today's headlines: Erdogan 130 'terrorists' handed over to allow Sweden and Finland into Nato; Indian mafia boss Ibrahim goes into hiding in Karachi; Beijing's new representative in Hong Kong takes office; Japan: new central bank governor in February; Vatican Secretary of State plans visit to Azerbaijian.

THAILAND

The daughter of exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is running for the premiership in this year's elections. Paetongtarn Shinawatra will run for the Pheu Thai Party, heir to her father's political formation. Thaksin and his sister Yingluck both led governments overthrown by military coups.

TURKEY

Ankara asked Sweden and Finland to extradite 130 people accused of 'terrorism' for a green light for their entry into NATO. Most on the list are Kurdish militants or figures who allegedly took part in the attempted coup in 2016.

INDIA

India's most notorious mafia boss, Dawood Ibrahim, is in hiding in Karachi, Pakistan, where he allegedly remarried a local woman. This was revealed to the national security authorities by one of his nieces. In addition to illegal trafficking of various kinds, the gangster is accused of connections with the Pakistani government and anti-Delhi terrorist groups.

HONG KONG-CHINA

Zheng Yanxiong took office as the new head of the Chinese Central Government Liaison Office in the former British colony. He replaces Luo Huining; until his appointment, he headed the local National Security Protection Office, an enactment of a draconian measure ordered by Xi Jinping in 2020.

JAPAN

In all likelihood, on 10 February the Kishida government will present the shortlist of candidates to succeed Haruhiko Kuroda at the helm of the powerful central bank to parliament. The favourites are the current deputy governor Masayoshi Amamiya and his predecessors Hiroshi Nakaso and Hirohide Yamaguchi.

RUSSIA

After the appeal by hundreds of doctors, a large group of Russian lawyers also addressed an open letter to President Putin calling for an end to the persecution and humiliation inflicted on Aleksej Naval'nyj: "Real torture", according to his spokesman, lawyer Viktor Drozdov, who calls the politician "a colleague" whose rights are being denied.

AZERBAIJAN-VATICAN

The Vatican Secretary of State, Card. Parolin, will visit Azerbaijan this year. The visit was announced after a meeting with the Azerbaijani ambassador to the Holy See, Ilgar Mukhtarov, who stressed "the importance of Baku's relations with the Vatican for the exchange of views on dialogue between civilisations and religions".

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