Authorities last week froze HK$18 million (US$2.3 million) of assets owned by three companies linked to Apple Daily.Mark Simon told the BBC that the paper could "do nothing while none of its bank accounts are functioning".Apple Daily, a well-read tabloid, is frequently critical of Hong Kong and mainland Chinese leadership."If you don't have money, you can't order services.

The Thai army has filed sedition charges against six key opposition party leaders who debated possible devolution of some powers to the nation's violence-hit south.More than 7,000 people have been killed in 15 years of violence in Thailand's 'Deep South' provinces that border Malaysia.Militants want greater autonomy for the culturally distinct Malay-Muslim region, annexed by Buddhist-majority Thailand more than 100 years ago.But the demand is incendiary to Thai nationalist

Dead dissidents dumped in a river, activists knotted up by the courts, and Big Brother-style internet laws – critics of Thailand's junta fear this week's election is poised to sharpen the dangers faced by those who disagree.Thais go to the polls on 24 March, in the first election since the 2014 coup that installed the generals in power.But it will be held under new rules established by a junta that has made clear it has no intention of leaving the political stage.Scores of dissident