Life & Style | actress charged in Thailand for catching giant clams

A South Korean actress has been charged in Thailand with catching endangered giant clams while participating in a reality TV show and could face up to four years in prison if found guilty, an official said Friday.

Actress Lee Yeol-eum cheered as she caught the three giant shellfish in a Thai national marine park in March on the survival TV show “The Law of the Jungle.” Participants in the show then ate the clams in an episode that aired on June 30.

Narong Kongeiad, chief of Hat Chao Mai National Park, said he filed police charges against Lee for violating wildlife laws by hunting the giant clams. The charge carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison and a fine of up to 40,000 baht ($1,300).

“The Law of the Jungle” has aired since 2011 and places South Korean celebrities in groups that are sent out to test their survival skills in remote locations.

Concerts, fireworks  and a military parade mark July Fourth

The national holiday to mark America’s birth as a country was filled with parades, concerts, competitive eating and, of course, fireworks.

Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, New York and other places around the country held massive celebrations with big name artists like Jennifer Hudson, Luke Bryan and Carole King.

But Independence Day was not free from politics, as President Donald Trump’s plan for a celebration in Washington featuring a display of tanks, fighter jets and a stealth bomber garnered support from some and protests from others.

A soggy, cheering crowd of spectators listened to President Donald Trump pay tribute to the U.S. military on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial.

Trump’s speech unfolded in occasional rain, and the warplanes and presidential aircraft he had summoned conducted their flyovers as planned, capped by the Navy Blue Angels aerobatics team.

Christie’s goes ahead with contested King Tut statue auction

Christie’s has gone forward with the auction of a 3,000-year-old stone sculpture of the famed boy pharaoh Tutankhamun despite protests from the Egyptian government.

The brown quartzite head depicting King Tut sold for more than 4.7 million pounds (USD5.9 million) Thursday evening.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry had demanded that the auction house provide documents proving the statue’s ownership and said Egypt holds rights to the piece based on its current and previous laws.

But Christie’s defended the sale process. The auction house says it carried out “extensive due diligence” to verify the provenance of the statue and had “gone beyond what is required to assure legal title.”

The King Tut represented in art and artifacts is one of the most prominent symbols of ancient Egypt’s glory.