Latest news with #BritishEmbassy
NHK
a day ago
- General
- NHK
Foreign embassies in Beijing make Tiananmen-related social media posts
Foreign embassies in Beijing made social media posts on Wednesday to mark 36 years since the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in the Chinese capital's Tiananmen Square. The British Embassy posted a short video featuring the iconic scene of a man standing in front of tanks. The screen is gradually whitened out, and in the end, the man disappears. The video appears to satirize the Chinese government's thorough and ongoing suppression of speech about the incident. The US Embassy posted a statement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying the Chinese Communist Party "actively tries to censor the facts, but the world will never forget." The statement said, "Today we commemorate the bravery of the Chinese people who were killed as they tried to exercise their fundamental freedoms, as well as those who continue to suffer persecution as they seek accountability and justice for the events of June 4, 1989." Such posts were made not on Chinese social media but on X, apparently to avoid censorship by Chinese authorities.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Mystery as naked body of British woman is found on beach on Thai Full Moon Party island
A British tourist has been found dead on the notorious 'Full Moon Party' island this morning. The 54-year-old washed ashore on a beach on Koh Phangan, southern Thailand wearing only an orange bra. When police arrived, they found the Brit face-down as her orange underwear drifted ashore nearby. Officers said there were no signs of assault on her body and she was taken to the Koh Phangan Hospital for a post-mortem examination. Police Lieutenant Pongnaphat Somboon of the Koh Phangan Police Station said: 'An X-ray of the victim's body found a large amount of sand and water in her lungs. 'We believe the cause of death was drowning. We will call the British Embassy to notify her relatives.' MailOnline has contacted the British Embassy and the Foreign Office for comment. The woman's body had been discovered by local villager Theerapong while walking at 6.30am. Authorities said the woman had been staying at a nearby bungalow for around a month. She was due to check out on June 11, a day after the island's infamous Full Moon Party. Staff claimed she was often seen drinking alcohol during her stay. On June 2, she reportedly struck her head after tripping outside a convenience store. Good Samaritans helped her walk back to her room when she refused to seek medical attention. She was reportedly last seen swimming at the beach on Monday evening before her body was found. Police said a search of Brit's room found all of her belongings still intact. Police Lieutenant Pongnaphat added: 'We do not believe there is anything suspicious but CCTV images will be checked to ensure that the death was accidental.' Drownings are a recurring safety concern in Thailand, especially in tourist hotspots like Phuket, Pattaya, and Krabi. The deaths are often attributed to strong rip currents, lack of swimming skills, and disregard for warning signages. The waters are most dangerous during the country's rainy monsoon season, when red flags are placed in beaches to warn of dangerous sea conditions. The Thai Full Moon Party is an all-night beach party on the island of Koh Phangan which takes place on the night of every full moon. The event is usually attended by thousands of backpackers and has associations with wide-scale drug use.
The Sun
29-05-2025
- General
- The Sun
Frantic search for missing Scots holidaymaker who vanished hours after arriving in Algarve party hotspot
FEARS are growing for a missing Scots holidaymaker who vanished during a night out with friends hours after flying to the Algarve on Tuesday. Greg Monks' worried sister Jillian sounded the alert today, saying the Glasgow man had last been seen in the Portuguese party resort of Albufeira during a first night out. 3 3 3 And she described his disappearance as 'completely out of character.' She wrote on an Albufeira expat site: 'My brother has not been since Tuesday evening. If you are currently there and have any information place contact me with any info.' Alison Meechan Fraser, from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, subsequently confirmed the 38-year-old had been reported missing and police were looking for him. She said: 'He was with a group of friends. All the other boys are at the accommodation. 'They all arrived Tuesday, went on a night out and none of them have seen him since late Tuesday/early Wednesday. 'It's out of character, he's 38 and named Greg.' Jillian also confirmed her brother's disappearance had been reported to the British Embassy as well as police and his hotel. She said: 'Please any info. We are desperate. Not like him to do this.' Portuguese police could not be reached for an immediate contact this afternoon. Other British holidaymakers reacted to Jillian's SOS by promising their support. Last month Edinburgh University history student Gregor Thomson vanished briefly less than a full day after arriving in Madrid with rugby club teammates for a weekend trip abroad. The 21-year-old's dad Murray touched down in the Spanish capital to learn his son had reappeared after becoming separated from friends during a night out.
Daily Mail
29-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Fears for missing British holidaymaker who vanished just hours after arriving in Portugal with friends - as family make emotional plea
Fears are growing for a missing British holidaymaker who vanished during a night out with friends hours after flying to the Algarve on Tuesday. Greg Monks' worried sister Jillian sounded the alert today, saying the Glaswegian had last been seen in the party resort of Albufeira during a first night out in the sunshine resort and describing his disappearance as 'completely out of character.' She wrote on an Albufeira expat site: 'My brother has not been since Tuesday evening. If you are currently there and have any information place contact me with any info.' Alison Meechan Fraser, from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, subsequently confirmed the 38-year-old had been reported missing and police were looking for him. She said: 'He was with a group of friends. All the other boys are at the accommodation. 'They all arrived Tuesday, went on a night out and none of them have seen him since late Tuesday/early Wednesday. 'It's out of character, he's 38 and named Greg.' Jillian also confirmed her brother's disappearance had been reported to the British Embassy as well as police and his hotel. She said: 'Please any info. We are desperate. Not like him to do this.' Portuguese police could not be reached for an immediate contact this afternoon. MailOnline has contacted the UK's Foreign Office for comment. Other British holidaymakers reacted to Jillian's SOS by promising their support. Last month Edinburgh University history student Gregor Thomson vanished briefly less than a full day after arriving in Madrid with rugby club teammates for a weekend trip abroad. The 21-year-old's dad Murray touched down in the Spanish capital to learn his son had reappeared after becoming separated from friends during a night out.
The Guardian
29-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Former ambassador calls on UK to advise citizens against travel to Egypt
The former British ambassador to Egypt, John Casson, has urged the UK to advise its citizens against travelling to Egypt, in response to Cairo's refusal to release dual British Egyptian national Alaa Abd el-Fattah. A UN panel found on Wednesday that Fattah had been held arbitrarily in jail since 2019, but Egypt was refusing to give the UK consular access – let alone release him. His mother has been refusing food in protest at his detention. Casson, ambassador to Egypt from 2014 to 2018, said: 'Egypt pretends to be a friend of the UK and is dependent on British visitors to keep its economy afloat. We have to demonstrate that that is not compatible with abusing our citizens and blocking our embassy.' He added that the Foreign Office had worked its way through 'the normal diplomatic playbook' to secure his release, but this 'only revealed Egypt fobbing us off and trying to push us around'. Casson told the BBC: 'It is a police state in Egypt. It is violent and vindictive and it is abusing a British citizen in Alaa Abd el-Fattah. 'It has tortured him and kept him in prison on bogus charges and is causing a lot of distress to his family, but it is also abusing the rights of the British government to do its normal business and it is blocking our embassy from its most fundamental function of visiting and supporting British nationals when they get into trouble.' He said the advice should be to caution against travel to Egypt –and not just due to this specific case. As a former ambassador to Egypt, he said 'if a friend or family came to me today and asked 'Should we be booking our winter sun in Egypt?', I would have to say: 'You are taking a real risk. If you get into any kind of difficulties, if you post the wrong thing on social media even, there is no guarantee your rights will be protected. There is no guarantee of due process and we cannot even be sure the British embassy will be able to visit you in the normal way''. He recalled during his period as ambassador 'a Cambridge university student was tortured to death over several days in a prison cell. There was a British woman who went on a beach holiday and found herself in a prison cell for a year due to carrying too many pain killers in her luggage.' There had also been a string of abduction cases. The travel advice, he said, should be as frank as the advice given to British people thinking of travelling to Hong Kong and Iran. He believed the case required political will, and had to be a defining issue in the UK relationship with Egypt. Casson was speaking after co-signing a letter with the Labour peers Lord Hain and Lady Kennedy calling for the British government to advise British nationals not to travel to Egypt. Cash-strapped and heavily indebted, Egypt is deeply reliant on tourism, which contributed approximately $31bn (£23bn) to its GDP in 2023 and is a provider of nearly 9% of the total jobs in the country. In 2024, Egypt welcomed a record-breaking 15.7 million tourists, surpassing the previous year's record of 14.9 million. More than 500,000 British people visit Egypt annually. Current Foreign Office travel advice suggests some parts of Egypt such as Sinai are at risk of terrorism, and also says making critical comments about the government can cause difficulties. There are however no warnings in place about the main tourist spots. Casson has long been critical of the UK's inability to find the right levers to persuade the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, to release Fattah, but the UN report is another pressure point. The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, has twice rung the Egyptian president to ask for Fattah's release, while the UK national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, and the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, have both raised the case in meetings with their opposite numbers. It has also been raised by UK diplomats at the UN human rights council, but so far even a preliminary right to see Fattah in jail has been denied by British diplomats on the basis that Egypt does not recognise his dual citizenship. He was charged with spreading false news about Egypt, and has been a long-term critic of the government repression.
