News in brief (2022-09-24)

FE Team | Published: September 23, 2022 21:18:55

Putin, Saudi crown prince satisfied after prisoner exchange
MOSCOW, Sept 23: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke by phone to express their satisfaction over a prisoner-of-war swap between Moscow and Kyiv facilitated by Riyadh, the Kremlin said Friday. During a phone call late Thursday the two leaders expressed "satisfaction in connection with the transfer to Saudi Arabia of foreign citizen prisoners of war... that took place with the personal mediation of the crown prince", it said. — AFP
Model who criticized Myanmar's military fears repatriation
BANGKOK, Sept 23: A model from Myanmar who denounced her country's military rulers last year from the stage of a beauty pageant in Thailand said Friday she fears she may be forced back home. Thaw Nandar Aung, also known as Han Lay, told The Associated Press by phone that she has been stuck at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport since being denied reentry to Thailand when she arrived Wednesday night from a short trip to Vietnam. She has been living in Thailand but needed to exit and reenter in order to extend her stay. She said she was seeking the assistance of the United Nations refugee agency to avoid being sent back to Myanmar, where she feared harsh punishment from the military government she has criticised. — AP
Award-winning British author Hilary Mantel dies
LONDON, Sept 23: Hilary Mantel, the best-selling British author of the award-winning "Wolf Hall" Tudor trilogy, died peacefully on Thursday at the age of 70, her publisher said on Friday. "Wolf Hall", published in 2009, and its sequel "Bring Up the Bodies", published three years later, together sold more than 5 million copies worldwide and both won the Booker Prize, an unprecedented win for two books in the same trilogy. The final in the series, "The Mirror & the Light", was published in March 2020. "It is with great sadness that HarperCollins announces that bestselling author Dame Hilary Mantel DBE died peacefully, surrounded by close family and friends, yesterday," a statement on the website of her publisher 4th Estate Books, which is owned by HarperCollins, said. — Reuters
Strong winds, heavy rains hit Bermuda as Hurricane Fiona skirts by
HAMILTON (Bermuda), Sept 23: Gusts of 100 miles an hour and driving rain buffeted Bermuda early Friday, leaving thousands without power and fearing coastal damage as Hurricane Fiona, a powerful Category 3 storm, slid past the Atlantic island. Fiona's centre was located about 155 miles (250 kilometers) northwest of the British territory, according to the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC), which downgraded the storm to Category 3. — AFP