MALAYSIA
Death penalty scrapped
Parliament yesterday passed sweeping legal reforms to remove the mandatory death penalty, trim the number of offenses punishable by death and abolish natural-life prison sentences. The nation has had a moratorium on executions since 2018, when it first promised to abolish capital punishment entirely. However, the government faced political pressure from some parties and rowed back on the pledge a year later, saying it would retain the death penalty, but allow courts to replace it with other punishments at their discretion. Under the new amendments, alternatives to the death penalty include whipping and imprisonment of 30 to 40 years. The new jail term is to replace all previous provisions that call for imprisonment for the duration of the offender’s natural life. Life imprisonment sentences, fixed at 30 years, will be retained.
SOUTH KOREA
Dry spell fuels wildfires
Firefighters were yesterday scrambling to contain wildfires across the nation, as a dry spell led to blazes in multiple regions. A fire broke out on Sunday morning on Mount Inwang in Seoul’s Jongno District, and spread rapidly due to strong winds, the city government said in a statement. About 120 households were forced to evacuate, but no deaths or injuries were reported, it added. Firefighters using helicopters were still struggling to extinguish smouldering fires early yesterday, the statement said, although the main blaze was put out on Sunday evening. Firefighting authorities were yesterday also battling strong winds and smoke in an effort to contain wildfires across Chungcheong Province. More than 60 homes and buildings were damaged by fire and at least 236 people were evacuated in Hongseong County, the Korea Forest Service said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Teachers reject pay offer
Teachers in England have overwhelmingly rejected a pay offer from the government aimed at ending a series of disruptive strikes, their trade union said yesterday, announcing two further days of walkouts. The National Education Union (NEU), the largest education union, said 98 percent of teachers who voted in the ballot followed its advice to reject the offer of a one-off payment this year of ￡1,000 (US$1,233) and an average pay increase of 4.5 percent in the next financial year. “This resounding rejection of the government’s offer should leave [Secretary of State for Education] Gillian Keegan in no doubt that she will need to come back to the negotiating table with a much better proposal,” NEU joint general secretaries Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney said in a statement. The union said teachers would take two further days of strike action, on April 27 and May 2.
FRANCE
Skier falls to death
A Frenchman fell to his death in the Alps after crashing through a plastic window on a ski lift while “messing about” under the influence of alcohol, prosecutors and the lift operator said. The accident took place on Saturday at the end of the day as two men, aged 29 and 23, were descending the mountain at the Deux Alpes resort. They were “under the influence of alcohol” and “were messing about in the lift and the 29-year-old smashed through the plexiglas screen and fell 40m to his death,” local prosecutor Eric Vaillant said on Sunday. Media reports said the two men were filming themselves when one of them rammed himself against the side of the lift. The ski lift is set to be examined by police who are investigating the death.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
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