Clinton recovering, to be back at desk Monday
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Outgoing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who fell ill in December and hasn’t been seen in public since, will be back at her desk on Monday,

her closest aide said on Thursday (Friday in Manila). Clinton has been off work sick, since her return from her last trip on December 7, although her staff said that she has been working from home. The State department said that Clinton had contracted a bad stomach virus during her five-day stay in Europe. But her lengthy absence from public life has sparked claims from some of her fiercer critics that she is trying to avoid testifying in a congressional investigation into a deadly attack on a US consulate in Libya.

Egypt’s Mubarak back in hospital
CAIRO: Egypt’s state prosecutor ordered imprisoned former dictator Hosni Mubarak transferred to a military hospital after his health deteriorated, a source at the prosecutor’s office said.

Mubarak, serving a life sentence over the killings of protesters, was briefly taken to hospital on December 19 for scans after he fell in his prison bathroom and hurt his head. Mubarak, 84, will be returned to prison after he is treated, the source said. A court sentenced the veteran strongman to life imprisonment in June for failing to prevent the killings of protesters during the 18-day revolt that ended his three-decade rule in February 2011. Some 850 people died in the uprising. Since his fall from power, Mubarak’s health has appeared to deteriorate significantly and he has suffered repeated health scares.

Thais jailed over 54 Myanmar migrant deaths
BANGKOK: Four people smugglers were sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Thai court after 54 illegal workers from Myanmar suffocated to death inside a seafood container, an official said on Friday. The 2008 incident was the deadliest in a wave of tragedies afflicting migrants making perilous journeys from impoverished Myanmar in search of work in neighboring Thailand, where they often end up exploited and abused. The victims were among 121 people crammed into the six meters by 2.2 meters container with a broken ventilation system for the journey to the resort island of Phuket to work as day laborers. Four Thais were convicted on Thursday of gross negligence resulting in death and of breaking immigration laws.  The owner of the container truck was sentenced to 10 years in prison, a second defendant received nine years and a third—who owned a jetty in southern Thailand where the migrants arrived by boat—was jailed for six years.                                            

AFP