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/ 19 October 2007
Canadian paedophile suspect Christopher Neil, unmasked by nifty computer work by German police and a unique Interpol internet appeal, was arrested in rural Thailand on Friday. Police said they had picked up the 32-year-old, accused of raping young boys in Vietnam and Cambodia several years ago, in the province of Nakhon Ratchasima.
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/ 15 October 2007
United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari told Burma on Monday to stop arresting dissidents and Thailand proposed a regional forum including China and India to nudge the reclusive military junta towards democratic reform. Gambari said the continued arrests and intimidation of activists were ”extremely disturbing”.
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/ 14 October 2007
The sudden flooding of a cave in Thailand’s southern province of Surat Thani killed at least five German tourists and their two Thai guides and left two others missing, park officials said on Sunday. Rescue workers had located seven bodies in the cave, including five Germans, one male adult, a female and three children.
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/ 14 October 2007
A total of six activists were rounded up by Burmese authorities in a raid on a safe house over the weekend, Amnesty International said on Sunday, as the junta continued to hunt for protest leaders. ”There is no information on where they are being detained,” the group said in a statement.
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/ 10 October 2007
A Burma opposition leader who was arrested during last month’s mass protests against the junta died due to torture during interrogation, an activist group said on Wednesday. And in Washington, the United States threatened new sanctions against Burma after media reports of the death of Win Shwe.
The appointment by Burma’s junta of one of its most trusted troubleshooters as a go-between for detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi suggests the generals may be serious about negotiations. Aung Kyi is a major player within the junta and will act as more than an errand boy, those who know him say.
United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari may not have met Burma junta supremo Than Shwe at the weekend, but the fact he is still in the country suggests his mission is far from failed. The schedule for Gambari’s mission was threadbare — 24 hours and one meeting with Than Shwe.
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/ 29 September 2007
Burma or Myanmar? As the military regime has cracked down on pro-democracy protests in the Asian country this week, a war of words has flared again over what to call the troubled nation. The United States and the BBC prefer the old name, Burma, while the United Nations, Japan and other nations have adopted Myanmar.
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/ 24 September 2007
Hunkered down in their new capital, far removed from the largest anti-government movement since 1988, Burma’s ruling generals are caught in a rare dilemma. They can either come down hard on the Buddhist monks leading the protests — and risk turning pockets of dissent into nationwide outrage as reports.
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/ 18 September 2007
Thai authorities probing a plane crash that killed 89 people in Phuket discovered on Tuesday that a system designed to check for dangerous winds was not fully working, an official said. Attention had earlier focused on the pilot, with officials saying he had been warned of a dangerous wind shear by air-traffic control but decided to land anyway.
Star Trek actor Walter Koenig urged fans of the iconic sci-fi series on Tuesday to turn their wrath on Burma’s military junta, an earthly ”outpost of tyranny”. Koenig, who battled Klingons and Romulans as an original member of the Starship Enterprise crew, said he hoped to mobilise Trekkies to join a campaign against the ruling generals blamed for human rights abuses.
In a plush Bangkok ballroom one evening, hoteliers, ambassadors, celebrity chefs and socialites gathered to dine on foie gras, oysters and sushi while they talked about promoting Thai cuisine. Between helpings of Alaskan king crab, French wine and melt-in-your-mouth Parma ham flown in from Italy, the assembled crowd discussed ways of putting Bangkok on the international culinary map.
Thailand’s army-installed prime minister said on Tuesday that ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra would be allowed to return to the kingdom to defend himself against corruption charges. ”His reason for wanting to return is understandable. He needs to come to fight the charges” made by an anti-corruption panel, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont told reporters.
Ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was banned from politics for five years, along with 110 Thai Rak Thai (TRT) executives, after a top court dissolved the political party on Wednesday over electoral fraud. ”All of the TRT party executives at the time the wrongdoing was committed will be subject to the ban,” said one of the nine judges ruling on the party.
A 6,1-magnitude earthquake struck northern Laos on Wednesday, shaking buildings as far away as Bangkok, about 800km to the south, and Hanoi to the east. Shoppers fled some of the Thai capital’s many malls in panic and some high-rise office blocks were evacuated after they swayed.
Video-sharing website YouTube has agreed to block four clips Thailand says insulted its revered king, the latest twist in a spat that has stirred fierce debate about freedom of expression on the internet. Insulting royalty is a serious offence in Thailand.
Nations have the money and technology to save the world from the worst ravages of global warming, but they must start acting immediately to succeed, experts at a United Nations climate conference agreed on Friday. After five days of testy negotiations, the experts from 120 nations agreed on a report laying out proposals to fight climate change.
Climate-change experts battled for agreement on Thursday on how to fight global warming as crucial United Nations talks entered their final phase, with China railing against the cost of action, delegates said. Week-long negotiations between scientists from 120 nations are expected to go well into the night in Bangkok.
Welcome to the United Nations climate talks, where days of frustration, political point-scoring, long hours and sheer exhaustion guarantee a memorable meeting, if not always much progress. And if you’re the last one standing, you’re the winner. This process is agreement by exhaustion,” a senior delegate at UN climate talks in Bangkok said this week.
A major climate meeting opened on Monday in the Thai capital, Bangkok, with delegates debating how to rein in rising greenhouse-gas emissions that could threaten hundreds of millions with hunger and disease in the coming decades. ”The time to act is now,” said Chartree Chueyprasit, a deputy secretary in Thailand’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
United Nations-sponsored scientists who warned of the dangers of a warming Earth will issue a new study next month describing how to avert the worst: everyone must embrace technologies ranging from nuclear power to manure control.
Asian tourists have begun turning away from Thailand, official statistics show, prompting concern that holidaymakers might be avoiding the kingdom because of its continuing political woes. The number of tourists arriving from East Asia dropped by 7,3% in the first two months of the year.
A nationwide security alert was issued across Thailand after a bomb exploded outside a Bangkok shopping centre that was also hit in a wave of New Year’s Eve attacks. The device blew up at a telephone booth in front of the Major Cineplex Ratchayothin shopping centre on the northern outskirts of the city late on Monday.
Thailand’s army-backed government accused online video-sharing website YouTube on Thursday of being heartless and culturally insensitive for refusing to remove a clip mocking the country’s revered king. ”I don’t think they really care how we feel. Thailand is only a tiny market for them,” said Communications Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom.
Thailand’s military-appointed government blocked access to video-sharing website YouTube on Wednesday after its owner, Google, declined to withdraw a video clip mocking the country’s revered monarch. Communications Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom said he had ordered a block of the entire site from Thailand.
Thai inmate Samson Sor Siriporn boosted her chances of freedom by beating Japan’s Ayaka Miyano to win the vacant women’s WBC light-flyweight title at the notorious ”Bangkok Hilton” prison on Tuesday. Under the gaze of dozens of prison guards, Siriporn, a convicted drugs dealer, battled through the unforgiving Thai heat to score a unanimous points victory.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) on Thursday tried to soften global concerns about decreasing oil supplies, saying Opec is committed to providing enough for world consumption. ”Opec is committed to ensure steady, secure supplies of crude oil to all consumers,” Opec president Mohammed al-Hamili said.
Thai parents often mark the birth of a child by heading to a bank to set up a savings account. Now some wealthy Thais are using a different kind of bank they hope will help protect their children’s future well-being — a medical bank that saves stem cells from a baby’s umbilical cord in hopes of providing a cure to any major illnesses that could develop later in life.
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/ 11 February 2007
It was an evening of utter decadence — a 10-course gourmet dinner concocted by world-renowned chefs at 000 (about R180 000) a head. Many of those who attended Saturday night’s culinary extravaganza in Bangkok hailed it as the meal of a lifetime.
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/ 6 February 2007
A 76-year-old Malay Muslim woman from southern Thailand who got on the wrong bus 25 years ago and ended up living at the other end of the country has been reunited with her family. Unable to speak, read or write Thai, Jaeyaena Beuraheng boarded a bus in Malaysia thinking it was bound for Narathiwat.
Army installed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont on Friday warned Thailand to brace for months of political unrest, saying new attacks could follow the deadly New Year’s Eve blasts in Bangkok. "Based on the information that I have, the public must keep vigilant and alert for a period of at least a month or two," he told reporters.
Ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra denied suggestions by the military and his army-appointed successor he was linked to New Year’s Eve bombs in Bangkok that killed three people and wounded 38. Thaksin accused the army-appointed government of jumping to conclusions by blaming ”groups that have lost political powers”.