THAILAND
Court rules against party
The Constitutional Court yesterday ruled the biggest party in parliament had contravened the constitution in seeking to change a law against insulting the monarchy, in what could set a precedent for any future review of one of the world’s strictest lese majeste laws. The Move Forward Party won last year’s election on a progressive platform that included a once unthinkable proposal to amend the law, which carries penalties of up to 15 years in jail for each perceived insult of the crown. The court ordered the party to abandon that plan, which it said was tantamount to an attempt to “overthrow the democratic regime of government with the king as a head of state.”
SOUTH KOREA
US pilot ejects before crash
A US Air Force pilot yesterday safely ejected from an F-16 jet that crashed into waters off the southwestern coast. The unidentified pilot was conscious and was transported to a medical facility for assessment, the US Eighth Fighter Wing said in a statement. It said it closely worked with US and South Korean mission partners to recover the pilot, who experienced an unspecified in-flight emergency and ejected before the plane crashed into the sea. The cause of the crash, which reportedly occurred in waters near the port city of Seosan, was being investigated.
CHINA
Couple executed for killings
The government yesterday executed a couple for throwing two young children out of the window of an apartment building, in a case that caused nationwide outrage. Zhang Bo (張波) and Ye Chengchen (葉誠塵) were previously found responsible for the fatal falls of the two-year-old girl and one-year-old boy from the 15th floor of a residential tower in Chongqing. Zhang, who was the father of the two children, had begun an affair with Ye, who was initially unaware he was married and had children. She then urged Zhang to kill his two children, which she “regarded as obstacles” to their getting married and a “burden on their future life together,” the Chongqing No. 5 Intermediate People’s Court said in a statement. In November 2020, Zhang threw his children out of the window of the apartment in the absence of their mother, with whom he had agreed to divorce.
AUSTRALIA
Sheep, cattle marooned
A ship carrying about 14,000 sheep and 2,000 cattle is marooned off the coast in sweltering heat after it was forced to abandon a trip through the Red Sea, causing an outcry from people concerned about the animals’ welfare. The vessel left on Jan. 5 for Israel, where it was to unload, but diverted from its course in the middle of last month due to the threat of attack by Yemen’s Houthi militia before being ordered home by the government. The animals are now in limbo and could be sent back to sea for a month-long journey to Israel around Africa, industry officials and the government said. Farm and exporter groups say the animals on board the MV Bahijah are in good health, but with temperatures close to 40°C, animal rights have criticized the situation. The ordeal shows that the live export trade is “rotten to its core,” lawmaker Josh Wilson said. “What is being contemplated is a 60-day voyage for 14,000 sheep on a stinking hot, and literally stinking, metal vessel,” he told 10 News. “It’s very hard to imagine that that is consistent with the animal welfare standards that Australians expect to be applied to Australian animals.”
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
Hundreds of Filipinos and tourists flocked to a sun-bleached field north of Manila yesterday, on Good Friday, to witness one of the country’s most blood-soaked displays of religious fervor, undeterred by rising fuel prices. Scores of bare-chested flagellants with covered faces walked barefoot through the dusty streets of Pampanga Province’s San Fernando as they flogged their backs with bamboo whips in the scorching heat. Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists said they saw devotees deliberately puncturing their skin with glass shards attached to a small wooden paddle to ensure their bleeding during the ritual, a way to atone for sins and seek miracles from
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said. Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence, said his wife, Zhao Yaliang (趙雅良), and Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group which operates outside the nation. The closed-door, one-day trial took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei Province neighboring the capital, Beijing, and ended without a
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