A Cambodian court charged an Australian nurse on Monday for allegedly operating an illegal fertility clinic, police said, weeks after the country declared a ban on commercial surrogacy.

Tammy Davis-Charles, 49, allegedly charged foreign couples $50,000 for surrogacy services and paid Cambodian women between $10,000 to $12,000 to carry babies on their behalf, Police Colonel Keo Thea, director of Phnom Penh’s anti-trafficking bureau, said.

She was detained in the Cambodian capital at the weekend, and charged along with two Cambodian staff, Penh Rithy and Samrithchan Chariya.

“They acted as intermediaries in surrogacy and engaged in falsifying documents,” Keo Thea said.

Davis-Charles was too ill to attend the court on Monday and was charged in absentia, he said.

Cambodia moved to shut down its booming commercial surrogacy industry, which attracted foreign couples seeking to become biological parents, last month after similar bans in Thailand, India and Nepal.

“If we don’t crackdown on this, it will blossom,” Keo Thea said, referring to commercial surrogacy. “We don’t want to become a country that exports humans.”

Keo Thea said that Davis-Charles had moved her business to Cambodia more than a year ago after Thailand closed down its surrogacy clinics in Feb 2015.

Neighbouring Thailand had previously been a top destination for fertility tourism.

Reuters was unable to reach Davis-Charles for comment.

A spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said on Monday that consular assistance was being provided to an Australian woman arrested in Cambodia, without elaborating.

The Australian government has advised its citizens not to visit Cambodia for commercial surrogacy arrangements.

MANILA – Campaigners launched legal action Monday to exhume the body of former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, just three days after his burial in a national heroes’ cemetery triggered street protests.

He was finally laid to rest Friday in a secretive ceremony at the “Cemetery of Heroes” with military honours almost three decades after his death, angering critics who accuse Marcos of massive corruption and human rights abuses.

Relatives of victims of his rule asked the Supreme Court Monday to dig up his remains, claiming they had not been given enough time to appeal a ruling allowing his burial in the cemetery.

“How can a plunderer and despot and violator of human rights be given that honour of being buried in the memorial of good men?” said Congressman Edcel Lagman, brother of an abducted anti-Marcos dissident who was never seen again.

Two weeks ago the Supreme Court endorsed a decision by President Rodrigo Duterte to bury the dictator at the heroes’ cemetery.

The Marcos family and government moved quickly after the verdict, secretly flying the embalmed body from their home town in the northern Philippines to the cemetery in Manila on Friday and interring him.

But Lagman, an opposition member of the House of Representatives, filed a “motion for exhumation” Monday arguing the court ruling was not final because opponents were entitled to 15 days to appeal.

“The exhumation is imperative in order not to render moot and academic the petitioners’ forthcoming and seasonable motion/s for reconsideration,” the motion read.

Lagman and another group representing victims of Marcos’ martial law also asked the Supreme Court Monday to cite the Marcos family and the military in contempt of court for organising the burial.

Opponents also announced a major street protest for Friday.

Former president Fidel Ramos, a senior Duterte advisor and former military chief who was among the leaders of the anti-Marcos revolt, criticised the burial.

“It was an insult, it was a trivialisation of the role, the sacrifices of our armed forces…. Of course they (anti-Marcos forces) are entitled to protest,” Ramos told a news conference Monday.

“It is a step backward for this administration in the sense that they are losing support, they are losing friends,” he said, urging the Duterte government to fire military and police officials who helped carry out the burial.

Millions of Filipinos took to the streets in 1986 in a famous “People Power” revolution to oust the then dictator.

Marcos died in exile in Hawaii three years later, and his body was put on public display in his northern home town because previous presidents had refused to allow the dictator to be buried at the heroes’ cemetery.

Read also: Philippine dictator Marcos to be buried at heroes’ cemetery: Police

The former leader, his wife Imelda, 87, and their cronies plundered up to $10 billion from state coffers and plunged the Philippines into crippling debt during his rule, according to government investigators and historians.

The dictator also suppressed dissent, with thousands killed and tortured, previous Philippine governments said.

But his heirs staged a political rehabilitation that saw his wife and their children winning public office.

Their comeback culminated in the election this year of Duterte, a long-time ally of the family.

Duterte has defended the burial, saying laws entitled Marcos to be buried at the heroes’ cemetery as a former president and soldier.

Over the weekend, an emotional widow Imelda said her dead husband was “at peace” there.

“I know Marcos stood for the truth and if you are on the side of truth, God is on your side,” she told supporters at a memorial mass at her late husband’s grave.

SEOUL – South Korea’s main opposition party voted Monday to seek the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye after prosecutors named her a criminal suspect in a snowballing corruption case.

But it remains unclear exactly when Park’s opponents will formally try to start the process, a difficult and lengthy one with no guarantee about the outcome.

Members of the Democratic Party voted unanimously in favour of seeking Park’s impeachment and setting up a working group to review related legal issues, its spokesman Ki Dong-Min told reporters.

“We have decided to join efforts with civic groups, other opposition parties and even members of the ruling party who want Park to be impeached,” Ki said.

He said the party would formally begin the process when it sees the “biggest possibility” of parliament approving such a move.

Two smaller opposition parties have already said they will seek to remove Park.

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Tens of thousands of South Koreans stage protest in Seoul calling for President Park Geun Hye to resign

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AFP

Reuters

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Even some members of the president’s ruling conservative party have come out in favour of impeachment.

But their commitment to the process is unclear for now, partly due to fear of a political backlash if the impeachment bid fails.

A failed attempt in 2004 to impeach then-President Roh Moo-Hyun backfired badly, with two parties that led the bid suffering a devastating defeat in a general election the same year.

In some ways the opposition has had its hand forced by the huge outpouring of anti-Park sentiment, which has seen hundreds of thousands take to the streets of Seoul in recent weeks demanding she step down.

With Park showing no sign of going voluntarily, the opposition has come under pressure to take a more assertive stance, but is wary of the political dangers involved.

“Even if there is great public anger over Park for now, many lawmakers may be reluctant to take such a big risk by walking into an impeachment minefield,” said political commentator Kim Hong-Guk.

Park has just over a year to run of her single, five-year presidential term, and impeachment could take months, as it requires a two-thirds approval by the national assembly and a similar majority in the Constitutional Court.

There are concerns about a backlash from conservative voters who – while disappointed with Park – would see her impeachment as unwarranted and overly punitive.

On Sunday Seoul prosecutors said Park had colluded with her long-time friend Choi Soon-Sil, who is accused of coercing local firms to donate more than $60 million and of meddling in state affairs.

That made Park the first South Korean president to become a criminal suspect while in office.

Choi and a former Park aide were formally indicted on charges of abuse of power and coercion, while another aide was charged with leaking confidential state documents.

Park had previously said she would submit to prosecutors for questioning, but her lawyer signalled a change Sunday, saying she would only answer to an independent team of investigators which will soon take over the case.

A sitting president cannot be charged with a criminal offence except insurrection or treason, but she can be investigated and potentially charged once her term is over.

The three opposition parties hold a combined 55 per cent of parliamentary seats – short of the two-thirds majority, for which they would require the support of conservative MPs.

The scandal has sent Park’s job approval ratings diving to five per cent, a record low for a South Korean president.

BANGKOK – Thailand will begin building the funeral pyre for late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died last month at the age of 88, next year, the government said on Monday, adding 8,000 people will be involved in the cremation ceremony.

The king, the world’s longest reigning monarch, ruled for seven decades and was seen by many Thais as a stabilizing force through an era of rapid change and social upheaval in the country.

Daily Buddhist funeral rites have been held for the king at the Grand Palace in Bangkok but a royal cremation will not take place for at least another year.

Deputy Prime Minister Thanasak Patimaprakorn said a committee had been set up to oversee construction of the king’s cremation pyre in a public square in front of the palace.

“Building is expected to be completed before September 2017 but it depends on the weather,” Thanasak told reporters, adding that up to 8,000 people will take part in the cremation ceremony.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has made clear that the king’s only son and designated heir, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, will inherit the throne, though there is still no date for when he will officially succeed his father.

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A look back at Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s life

Source:

Reuters

AFP

The Straits Times

The Nation/ANN

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