COSTA RICA
Same-sex unions legalized
The nation became the latest to legalize same-sex marriage early yesterday when a ruling from the Supreme Court went into effect, ending its ban. Couples scheduled ceremonies — mostly private due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but some that would be broadcast — to celebrate their unions before judges and notaries after the ban was lifted at midnight. In August 2018, the court said that the nation’s ban was unconstitutional and gave the Legislative Assembly 18 months to correct it or it would happen automatically. The legislature did not act, so at midnight the law banning same-sex marriage was nullified.
GUATEMALA
Factory a COVID-19 hot spot
More than 200 workers at an export-focused textile plant have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and more results are pending in what could be one of the country’s largest outbreaks, officials said on Monday. Zulma Calderon, the health prosecutor for the human rights prosecutor’s office, said the office began receiving reports early this month that infected workers were continuing to work at the K.P. Textil plant in San Miguel Petapa and that the company was not taking protective measures. On Saturday, the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance said that it believed the plant’s outbreak stemmed from one infected worker.
ECUADOR
Protesters march over crisis
Demonstrators on Monday defied coronavirus restrictions to march in cities nationwide in protest against President Lenin Moreno’s drastic economic measures to tackle the crisis. Moreno last week announced public spending cuts, including the closure of state companies and embassies worldwide, but trade unions on Monday said that workers were paying a disproportionate price compared to Ecuador’s elite. About 2,000 people marched in the capital, waving flags and banners and shouting anti-government slogans. The protesters wore masks and respected social distancing measures recommended to fight the spread of the coronavirus that has caused at least 3,200 deaths in the country, making it South America’s worst-hit nation per capita.
BRAZIL
Media boycott news briefings
Two top media groups on Monday said that they were suspending coverage of President Jair Bolsonaro’s informal news conferences outside the presidential palace because of harassment by his supporters and a lack of security. Media conglomerate Globo and newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo said that the presidential security detail was failing to provide adequate protection for journalists covering Bolsonaro. The far-right president, who regularly rails against the mainstream media, often stops outside Alvorada Palace in Brasilia in the morning to greet supporters and occasionally speak to the media, but the informal event has turned tense at times.
FRANCE
‘Political’ move strains ties
Ties with Iran have become more difficult after a French-Iranian academic was sentenced to prison, Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian said yesterday. “This sentencing was founded on no serious elements and was politically motivated. So we firmly say to the Iranian authorities to release Fariba Adelkhah without delay,” Le Drian said. “This decision makes our relations with the Iranian authorities a lot more difficult.” Adelkhah, who has been in jail for a year, was this month sentenced to six years on national security charges.
PHILIPPINES
No school without vaccine
President Rodrigo Duterte said he would not allow students to go back to school until a COVID-19 vaccine is available. Children were due to return to school at the end of August after classes for more than 25 million primary and secondary students were shut down in March as the contagion took off in the nation. However, in a speech aired late on Monday, Duterte said the risk was too great, even if it held students back academically. “Unless I am sure that they are really safe it’s useless to be talking about opening of classes,” he said. “For me, vaccine first. If the vaccine is already there, then it’s okay,” he said. “If no one graduates, then so be it.”
WEST BANK
Nativity Church reopens
Bethlehem’s storied Church of the Nativity yesterday reopened to visitors after a nearly three-month closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The church, built over the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born, was closed on March 5 as the first cases of the virus were reported in the West Bank. The church is one of Christianity’s most sacred shrines and the closure came ahead of the busy Easter holiday season that typically draws tens of thousands of visitors. Bishop Theophylactos, a Greek Orthodox cleric, called the reopening a day of celebration for Bethlehem since “all the people now can enter the church and pray like before.”
CHINA
Graft prosecutions soar 90%
A total of 18,585 people were prosecuted for crimes related to corruption last year, up 90 percent from a year earlier, an annual report from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate submitted to the national parliament showed. Sixteen cases involved former provincial or ministerial-level Chinese Communist Party cadres, including former Yunnan party secretary Qin Guangrong (秦光榮). The nation’s prosecutions overwhelmingly end in convictions. Of the nearly 1.3 million criminal cases last year, only 1,388 people were acquitted.
FRANCE
Royal bag beats estimates
A travel bag belonging to the ill-fated French queen Marie-Antoinette sold for more than five times its estimate in an auction of royal memorabilia near her one-time home at the Palace of Versailles. The Osenat auction house said that there had been fierce bidding late on Sunday “both in the room, over the telephone and on the Internet” for the relics of the iconic queen who lost her head during the French Revolution. The leather travel bag with the studded “Queen’s room number 10” inscription went for 43,750 euros (US$47,974), from an estimate of 8,000 to 10,000 euros. A damask serviette embroidered with the royal fleurs de lys insignia and leaf crowns with a bouquet of roses at its center went for 14,500 euros, also several times its estimate.
GERMANY
Alleged hacker indicted
Prosecutors have indicted a 22-year-old man on suspicion of stealing the personal information of dozens of lawmakers and journalists, trying to blackmail some of them and leaking the data online. Frankfurt prosecutors yesterday said that the suspect, who was not named for privacy reasons, obtained phone numbers, home addresses, credit card details, private photographs and messages of 73 people, and bought further data from hundreds more on a now-closed Web site. He is accused of publishing the private data via Twitter in December 2018 and January last year. The leaks embarrassed some of the victims, but did not cause significant political damage.
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
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
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