EGYPT: Three Muslim Brotherhood members were hanged on Thursday for murder – but Human Rights Watch says their confessions were extracted under torture.

The three were convicted of the 2014 killing of a judge’s son, but the rights group says they were pressed into confessing with electric shocks and beatings. Their executions were a “glaring injustice,” it charged.

THAILAND: The king’s sister says she will stand for the post of prime minister.
Princess Ubolratana Mahidol has been nominated by the Thai Raksa Chart Party – which was part of the coalition government of Yingluck Shinawatra before she was overthrown by the current military regime. She will be up against army strongman Prayuth Chan-ocha, a close ally of the reigning monarch.

IRAN: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei defended the national “death to America” chant ahead of the 40th anniversary of the Iranian revolution this weekend.
The slogan is not aimed at ordinary US citizens, he said, but their leaders. “It means death to [Donald] Trump and John Bolton and [Mike] Pompeo,” he explained.
Iranians would continue chanting it as long as the US acted maliciously towards Iran, he added.