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.
A Buddhist woman was shot and burned alive in Thailand’s violence-torn Muslim-majority south on Wednesday, prompting angry protests in front of visiting army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin. Watcharaporn Boonmak (26) was ambushed by gunmen as she rode her motorcycle through a Muslim village in Yala.
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.
South African Anton Haig kept his cool in scorching heat to win the Johnnie Walker Classic after a three-way play-off on Sunday. The 20-year-old Haig, who birdied the 72nd hole to join the leaders on 13-under-par 275, sank a 10-foot birdie putt at the first extra hole to beat compatriot Richard Sterne and Briton Oliver Wilson
Retief Goosen clawed his way into contention at the Johnnie Walker Classic on Friday, lurking two behind Oliver Wilson who leads by a stroke from South Africa’s Anton Haig. The world number six compiled a 68 to sit dangerously in the shadow of the Englishman, who spoiled a perfect score by hitting a bogey on the 18th for a round of 66 to be 10 under for the tournament.
Adam Scott and Ernie Els wilted in the hot and humid conditions on Thursday and will need to produce something special if they want to reel in Johnnie Walker Classic leader Brad Kennedy. World number four Scott fired a three-over-par 74 to be nine off the pace while Els, the world number five, trails by eight after shooting 73.
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/ 28 February 2007
Retief Goosen and Ernie Els on Wednesday forecast a big future for golf in Asia, with more top players and leading events coming to the region and a champion waiting in the wings. The two players are in Phuket for the Johnnie Walker Classic this week.
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/ 27 February 2007
Ernie Els and Adam Scott do battle in Asia again this week with the prospect of more fireworks from two of the world’s top golfers at the lucrative Johnnie Walker Classic. The last time Els and Scott met in the region they went head-to-head at the Singapore Open in September, with the Australian world number four digging deep to beat the big South African.
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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”.
Thai shares sank on the first morning of trade after the deadly New Year’s Eve bombings in Bangkok, raising fears that the attacks could drag down the faltering economy. The blasts that killed three and wounded 38 raised new fears about Thailand’s security and added to doubts about the post-coup government.
After a series of doomed relationships with American women, Marc Sullivan came to Bangkok in a bid to meet Miss Right at last. Sullivan, an emergency nurse from Florida, is one of a growing number of foreign men seeking young and beautiful Thai brides via the internet.
Deadly bombings cut short New Year celebrations in Bangkok and an ETA bombing prompted Madrid to cancel its festivities, while bad weather hampered revellers from New Zealand to Scotland. But the capitals of Bulgaria and Romania saw their biggest parties since the fall of Communism 17 years ago as tens of thousands sang, danced and drank their way into 2007 and the European Union.
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/ 19 December 2006
Tourists are finally returning to Thailand’s Andaman coast two years after the devastating tsunami, but any attempts to commercialise the tragedy are being snubbed by holidaymakers. The ”tsunami-survivor” T-shirts go unworn, and even the tasteful memorials are apparently being ignored by visitors.
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/ 19 December 2006
The last time Saran Sae-eaw saw his family alive, his father was struggling to rescue him, his mother and his siblings from the tsunami that devastated their village nearly two years ago. Saran was the only one his father was able to save. Both the 12-year-old’s parents and his three sisters all perished in the wall of water that killed 5Â 400 in Thailand.
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/ 7 December 2006
Hopes that the world will finally be able to immunise people against malaria received a shot in the arm this week as leading health experts unveiled the blueprint for a preventive vaccine in the Thai capital, Bangkok. Yet, the architects of this new global strategy — titled the <i>Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap</i> and launched on Wednesday at the end of a three-day conference — warn against too much optimism.
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/ 15 November 2006
Sitting cross-legged on his hospital bed at Yanhee Hospital in Bangkok, South African Neil van der Merwe unwraps a layer of bandages to reveal a six-inch tube inserted into the inner part of his forearm. The contraption is being used to grow a penis, the final step in his transformation from woman to man. ”I wanted to do this a long time ago,” says the 35-year-old, who sports a thin goatee and has lived as a man for five years.
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/ 14 November 2006
A Thai zoo will show its star residents, a pair of young giant pandas, "porn" videos to teach the famously sexually inactive animals how to mate, an official said on Tuesday. "We have to encourage them to mate, and the videos will show mating positions of male pandas and female pandas," said a veterinarian at the zoo.
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/ 31 October 2006
Buranee Clausen headed straight past the designer bags and swish clothes in one of Bangkok’s toniest malls to dive into a section of the store dedicated to Thailand’s hottest new import: Halloween. In a city that loves to celebrate any holiday, Halloween is catching on, not just as a kid’s party at international schools, but as a big night out on the town — and a marketing opportunity to draw more shoppers into stores.
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/ 13 October 2006
Suspected Islamic militants beheaded a Myanmar migrant worker in front of his teenage daughter in the most gruesome of a spate of attacks in Thailand’s troubled south. Several militants burst into the house of the 36-year-old prawn farm worker late Thursday, blindfolded his teenage daughter and shot the man at close range before beheading him, police said.
Deposed Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has resigned as head of his Thai Rak Thai party, triggering the dissolution of its entire executive in the wake of last month’s military coup. The billionaire telecoms tycoon remains in exile in London while an army-appointed anti-corruption panel investigates his assets and business dealings.
Thailand’s military rulers announced a stop-gap prime minister and constitution on Sunday, fulfilling a promise to step back in favour of civilians within two weeks of their coup against Thaksin Shinawatra. In other signs of the situation stabilising, the tanks that have stood outside Government House since the September 19 putsch rolled back to the barracks.
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/ 25 September 2006
Thailand’s coup leaders will yield power to a civilian prime minister once an interim Constitution is in place later this week, General Winai Phattiyakul said on Monday. ”We are not the prime minister’s boss and the prime minister is not our boss,” said Winai, a senior member of the military council that ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra last Tuesday.
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/ 25 September 2006
Thai stocks on Monday recovered for the first time since the coup against premier Thaksin Shinawatra, but analysts warned the bloodless takeover could dent economic growth already hit by months of political uncertainty. The Stock Exchange of Thailand composite index rose 1,41 points or 0,21% to close the morning session at 683,12 after falling to a two-month low on Friday.