A SIMPLE memorial service on a hillside in Thailand tomorrow will mark the second anniversary of the Lauda Air crash in which a passenger jet disintegrated at 8,000 metres, killing all 223 people on board, including 52 Hongkong residents.

It will be hard for the returning relatives of the dead to see the quiet jungle scene around them without recalling the images of mangled wreckage and barely-identifiable bodies that greeted them on their first visit to the spot near Huay Kamin, 220 kilometres northwest of the Thai capital in Suphan Buri province.

With an eye on studying chemistry abroad, Rafael Wang set his sights on master’s programmes in the United States. So, it came as an element of surprise when he learned that his university had been placed on a US sanctions list in 2020, and he had to react accordingly.

Now 24, Wang recalled how Washington’s decision to target the Nanjing University of Science and Technology threw a wrench in his plans.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, who led the Senate hearing committee that grilled Guo’s links to criminality involving Philippine offshore gambling operators (Pogos) as well as her citizenship, revealed information that Guo left the country last month and travelled to Kuala Lumpur.