• Thailand’s former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra faces up to 10 years in prison for negligence over rice subsidies that cost the Thai government billions of dollars. In January, Shinawatra was retroactively impeached for her role in the subsidy scheme, which doubled the market price for rice paid to farmers, and was banned from politics for five years. The Thai Supreme Court trial’s first hearing will be held on May 19.
• British troops have begun training Ukrainian government forces in their fight against pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s eastern region, the British government announced Thursday. As part of a two-month mission, 35 United Kingdom personnel are in the city of Mykolaiv. U.K. ministers announced the plan in late February and capped the number of British troops deployed at 75.
• U.S. Air Force veteran and Neptune, New Jersey native Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh pleaded not guilty to attempting to support the Islamic State (IS) militant group at a federal court hearing in Brooklyn, New York on Wednesday. After he traveled from the U.S. to Egypt to Turkey in an attempt to enter IS strongholds in Syria, Turkish authorities sent Pugh, 47, back to Egypt, where he was detained and deported to the U.S. If convicted, Pugh faces 35 years prison.
• In New Bern, North Carolina, an 18 year-old man allegedly stabbed members of a neighboring family with a machete late Tuesday night, killing three brothers, ages 1, 5 and 9 and wounding their mother and sister. The suspect and victims are all Burmese residents of a town home to 1,900 Burmese refugees. The alleged assailant, Eh Lar Doh Htoo, made his first court appearance in Craven County on Thursday afternoon.
• Interim CEO of DeKalb County Lee May hired former Georgia Attorney General Mike Bowers to lead a corruption investigation into the county’s 6,000 employees Wednesday. Bowers, who previously led the investigation of Atlanta Public Schools, which led to former educators’ criminal charges, will have unlimited access to DeKalb County documents and employees for interviews.
• The Georgia Senate unanimously passed a bill on Wednesday banning the potent, anti-anxiety medication Phenazepam, which has been reported on college campuses and linked to one death in the state. The bill, HB211, awaits Governor Nathan Deal’s signature, which would make it a law the day he signs it.
— Compiled by News Editor Lydia O’Neal
