THAILAND
Case against ex-PM dropped
The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed a case against former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva for ordering a crackdown on demonstrators protesting against his government in 2010. More than 90 people were killed in the unrest, one of the bloodiest episodes in more than a decade of turmoil stemming from rivalry for power between former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the conservative establishment. Abhisit and his deputy, Suthep Thaugsuban, were accused of murder and attempted murder in connection with the crackdown on Thaksin’s Red Shirt supporters to end their two-month street protest in Bangkok.
SOUTH KOREA
North threatens reporters
North Korea yesterday vowed to execute reporters from two newspapers, saying they insulted the nation’s dignity while reviewing and interviewing the British authors of a book about life in the country. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency carried a statement expressing anger over the descriptions of North Korean lives as increasingly capitalist. It also objected to the translated title of the South Korean edition as Capitalist People’s Republic of Korea and the book’s cover, which replaced the red star in the North’s official seal with the US dollar mark. The court also “sentenced to death” the presidents of the newspapers and said the North will “track down to the end and cut off the dirty windpipes” of those responsible for such provocations. The North did not directly threaten the British authors of North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors, but said the book “viciously defamed and distorted” the country’s realities. The book was written by Daniel Tudor, a former reporter for the Economist, and James Pearson, a Reuters correspondent.
UNITED STATES
Cancer treatment approved
Health officials have approved a breakthrough treatment that genetically engineers patients’ own blood cells into an army of assassins to seek and destroy childhood leukemia. The Food and Drug Administration called the approval “historic,” the first gene therapy to hit the domestic market. Made from scratch for every patient, it is one of a wave of “living drugs” under development to fight additional blood cancers and other tumors, too. Novartis Pharmaceuticals has set the price for its one-time infusion of so-called “CAR-T cells” at US$475,000, but said there would be no charge for those treated with it who did not show a response within a month.
UNITED STATES
Pete Frates honored
The man who inspired the ice bucket challenge has been honored by the Roman Catholic prep school he attended in Massachusetts. St Johns Prep on Wednesday announced Pete Frates as its distinguished alumnus for next year. The headmaster also announced the dedication of the school’s baseball diamond in Frates’ name and the retirement of his No. 3 jersey in football, ice hockey and baseball. Frates called it a “tremendous honor.” He graduated from the all-boys school in Danvers in 2003. Frates inspired the ice bucket challenge that has raised more than US$220 million for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS — also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease — research since 2014. The former Boston College baseball star was diagnosed in 2012 with the disease.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not