Word briefs

SOUTH KOREA prosecutors are to indict Samsung’s de facto chief on bribery, embezzlement and other charges linked to a political scandal that has toppled President Park Geun-hye. The indictment of Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong (pictured) is a huge hit for the largest and most successful of the big businesses that dominate the country’s economy.

TAIWAN President Tsai Ing-wen says the island’s democracy is mature enough to handle a thorough investigation into a bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters 70 years ago, an event seen as a rallying point by those who reject China’s claim to the self-governing island.

THAILAND Prisons fail to meet international standards, with inmates routinely shackled, stuffed into overcrowded cells and forced to work in harsh conditions, an international human rights group says. Thailand also has the highest incarceration rate in Southeast Asia, jailing 425 out of every 100,000 people, according to the International Federation for Human Rights.

THAILAND Rights groups are urging a university to drop an investigation into a group of lecturers who criticized Thailand’s military junta, calling the university’s response an attack on free speech and academic freedom.

BANGLADESH Five members of a banned militant group are sentenced to death for involvement in the slaying of a Japanese agricultural researcher two years ago.

SINGAPORE A Singaporean grandmother who was deported from Britain because her immigration status had lapsed says police treated her “like a terrorist” before putting her on a plane back to Asia. 

ASIA Developing countries in Asia and the Pacific will need to spend up to USD1.7 trillion a year, or $26 trillion through 2030, to meet their infrastructure needs and maintain the region’s growth momentum, the Asian Development Bank says. That’s more than double the previous estimate, made in 2009.

UK Former U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage (pictured) is calling for the ouster of the party’s only lawmaker in Parliament, as internal squabbling threatens to split the right-wing anti-EU party. Farage says in an article for Daily Telegraph newspaper that Douglas Carswell has sought to divide and damage UKIP, and “the time for him to go is now.”

HOLLYWOOD The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences apologizes to the cast and crews of the films “La La Land” and “Moonlight” for the mistaken announcement of the best picture winner during the Oscars award ceremony. The Academy’s apology comes after the accounting firm responsible for the integrity of the Academy Awards, PwC, said mistakes were made and its staffers did not move quickly enough to correct the biggest error in Oscars history.