Tongkum and Surat Phaeoket. Photo: Smiling Buffalo, A Little Thing Called Happiness. “Surat Phaeoket & Tongkum / Facebook
BANGKOK — A farmer who crowdfunded the purchase of a buffalo he had bonded with was charged Tuesday afternoon with fraud, money laundering and violating the Computer Crime Act.
After surrendering the buffalo to the police this morning, Surat Phaeoket was charged with serious crimes punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a 200,000 baht fine, one day after the official he bought the animal from accused him of defrauding donors with misleading statements.
Surat will be brought in for questioning, Col. Singh Singhdet of Khan Na Yao police said Tuesday.
Photos of man and buffalo became an online sensation earlier this month, and netizens chipped in the money needed for him to buy the animal outright. Surat last week purchased Tongkum from Boonlert Kanpakdee, a subdistrict mayor who set a price of 100,000 baht for the 4-year-old bull.
After the deal was done, Boonlert complained to the police he was embarrassed by what happened and alleged the funds had been illegally obtained. He said Surat made misleading statements about the animal’s predicament; Surat denies doing so.
Watanya Wongopasi, or "Madam Dear," left, accepts a party jacket Friday as she joins the Palang Pracharat party. Photo: Matichon
BANGKOK — More than 150 former MPs, senators, ministers and famous figures had joined pro-junta Palang Pracharat Party by the end of Monday.
Monday was the last day people could register for party membership if elections are to take place as schedule on Feb. 24.
Speculation is rife on whether the party will endorse junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha to return to the premiership after the next election. Under the new rules of the constitution, Palang Pracharat would need only seat 126 MPs to make Prayuth prime minister.
All in all, nine political parties saw MPs or former ministers defect to Palang Pracharat, which is led by Prayuth’s current cabinet members.
That includes 13 Democrat Party MPs, though all are backbenchers. Two hail from Bangkok.
The Pheu Thai Party and its affiliates, stretching back through former incarnations such as the defunct Thai Rak Thai and Palang Prachachon parties, saw hemorrhaged 37 of their MPs and politicians.
They include former Nakhon Ratchasima MP and Redshirt co-leader Suporn Attawong, who was deputy secretary-general to former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Another is 72-year-old veteran movie star Krungsrivilai Suthinphuek, aka Krung Srivilai, a former MP representing Samut Prakan province.
Palangchon Party, a dominant party in eastern Thailand – particularly Chonburi province – was hollowed out by the loss of five MPs, all who formerly represented Chonburi.
Six new Palang Pracharat members left the Bhumjaithai Party and two cut their ties with the Chartthaipattana Party.
Torpong Selanon, president of a national association representing blind people, was among the more prominent figures to join Palang Pracharat who previously weren’t affiliated with any party.
Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park is celebrating its second anniversary with an exclusive promotion, “Members Dine More”. The promotion provides Marriott Rewards members with opportunities to double their reward points for their dining at Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park’s restaurants and bars from December 1 to 30, 2018.
Mr. Brendon Partridge, Director of Food of Beverage of Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park, said, “We know that delicious dining makes for a fulfilling experience for all. So, to celebrate the second anniversary of Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park as well as the holiday season, we’d like to make sure that this is a happy time for everyone. ‘Members Dine More’ campaign is a gift from us to all Marriott Rewards members. Those dining at our restaurants and bars are entitled to special benefits including earning of double points and special discounts for Marriott Rewards members of all categories. I hope that all members will enjoy dining while earning more points”.
Entitlement to the rewarding of double points is subject to terms and conditions set out by Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park. A minimum spend of THB 330 is required for members to qualify for entitlement to doubling of points related to their dining at restaurants of Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park only, with the exception of buffets, set meals and room service. The promotion runs daily from December 1 to 30, 2018 (except December 5, 24, and 25, 2018).
Marriott Rewards Members are Marriott’s special members who are promptly entitled to a range of benefits associated with their stays at hotels in the Marriott family and their participation in celebrations organized by Marriott hotels. Members are also entitled to discounts and benefits when dining at restaurants of Marriott hotels including a 10-percent discount for general and Silver Elite members; a 15-percent discount for Gold Elite members; and a 20-percent discount for Platinum Elite and Platinum Premier Elite members. Points can be redeemed for free nights, exclusive member-only experiences and more.
The largest hotel in Bangkok and the first Marriott Marquis hotel in Asia Pacific, Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park is a new landmark in heart of the Thai capital. The hotel offers extensive facilities, including more than 1,388 rooms and suites, over 5,000m² of function
space across 37 venues, two swimming pools, the Quan Spa and a collection of restaurants and bars. Centrally located on Sukhumvit Road, in Bangkok’s vibrant business and entertainment district, the hotel is the perfect choice for all travelers to this pulsating city.
BANGKOK — Twenty-two provinces were named in an updated list of areas where no new pubs, clubs or other entertainment venues can be opened, an official said Tuesday.
The ban, first enacted during a populist morality crusade waged by then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was renewed in a Royal Decree published Thursday. Although existing bars and pubs are allowed to continue operating, new business licenses, theoretically, cannot be issued.
“They can’t open new ones,” said Wisitthipat Anantarasuchart, who oversees the Interior Ministry’s legal division. “The ones that are already there can renew their licenses every Dec. 31.”
The 22 provinces are Kamphaeng Phet, Chai Nat, Chumphon, Nakhon Nayok, Nonthaburi, Nan, Pathum Tani, Pattani, Phayao, Phang Nga, Phichit, Phetchaburi, Yasothon, Ranong, Sakon Nakhon, Satun, Sing Buri, Sukhothai, Suphan Buri, Nong Khai, Ang Thong and Uthai Thani.
The ban was based on a law passed by the military government in 1966, which grants authorities the power to regulate drinking and entertainment venues “to protect public morality.”
In 2002, the administration of populist premier Thaksin laid the ban over 26 provinces. Bueng Kan was later added to the list when it was established.
The military government in 2016 reviewed the list and asked the affected provinces whether they wanted to remain or opt out of the prohibition, Wisitthipat said. Five wanted out, so they were exempted in Thursday’s order.
The five provinces were Kanchanaburi, Bueng Kan, Ayutthaya, Nong Bua Lamphu and Si Saket.
UDON THANI — Travelers to Udon Thani City may be forgiven for momentarily thinking they’ve stepped out of Isaan and into the beating commercial heart of Tokyo.
A new pedestrian crosswalk near the provincial center’s train station was completed today featuring a large diagonal zebra crossing, and it didn’t take long for comparisons to Tokyo’s bustling Shibuya Crossing to start rolling in.
The crosswalk is part of the an urban planning project organized by the Thai Association of Town Planning along with various architects and developers. It aims to reorganize roads and increase safety for pedestrians.
A member of the project said the inspiration indeed came from the Shibuya Crossing.
“The intersection was mostly filled by motorbikes, buses and food stalls which cause traffic congestion,” a project member who would only identify himself as Ton said. “So we wanted to enlarge the pedestrians’ footpath space.”
The large diagonal crossing makes it convenient for people to walk between several attractions in the area, including a KFC, 7-Eleven, shopping mall and the train station.
“Now people do not have to cross twice to get to their destination,” Ton said.
The project took months of study and experimentation at many intersections before the U.D. Town intersection design, named for a nearby shopping center, was chosen.
The new intersection was set to undergo a “test run” at 4pm today, with pedestrians invited to come try it out.
Lines for a new diagonal crosswalk are painted at the intersection of Prajak Sillapakom and Thongyai roads in Udon Thani City.
Police remove the wreckage of a burned car Tuesday after rioting outside Sri Maha Mariamman temple in Subang, Malaysia. Photo: Vincent Thian / Associated Press
SUBANG JAYA, Malaysia — Malaysian police said Tuesday that 21 people have been arrested over rioting that broke out amid a dispute over the relocation of an Indian temple outside Kuala Lumpur.
The melee began early Monday morning when a group of intruders attacked Indian devotees praying at the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in central Selangor state’s Subang Jaya township and torched vehicles. Another group of men retaliated early Tuesday morning by vandalizing the office of property developer MCT Berhad near the temple and also set some vehicles ablaze.
MCT’s unit One City Development Sdn. Bhd. owns the land on which the temple sits and is embroiled in a legal tussle to relocate the century-old temple to an area nearby. Government officials and police were quick to dispel rumors on social media that it was a racial conflict.
Selangor police chief Mazlan Mansor said 21 people were detained and will be investigated for rioting with weapons and arson.
He said nearly two dozen vehicles were torched but the situation is calm and under control. Some 700 anti-riot personnel have been deployed to ensure peace in the area, he added.
Temple members told local media that the mob, mainly ethnic Malays, were armed with weapons such as knives and had told devotees to leave the temple because the land is owned by One City Development.
In a statement Monday, the developer denied that it orchestrated the attack on the temple. It said it abhorred the violence and had no reason to engage a mob after going through a lengthy court process. It said it had also offered compensation to build a new temple and had delayed the temple relocation to accommodate rituals tied to the move.
Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the incident was being investigated and warned the public not to make statements that could stoke racial disharmony and hurt national security.
Racial clashes have been rare in multiracial Malaysia since deadly race riots in 1969. Ethnic Malays account for nearly two-thirds of the country’s 31 million people, with large Chinese and Indian minorities.
KUALA LUMPUR — Four Finnish tourists will be deported and barred from returning to Malaysia after they were detained for distributing Christian materials on a resort island in the Muslim-majority country, police said Tuesday.
The two women and two men, aged between 27 and 60, were arrested Nov. 20 at their hotel in northern Langkawi island after police received several complains that they were handing out Christian materials in public places. Police also seized 47 pens with Bible verses and 336 notebooks containing texts from the Bible.
Langkawi police chief Mohamad Iqbal Ibrahim said the four, including a married couple, have been handed over to the immigration department following a decision by public prosecutors to deport them. He said they will also be blacklisted and the Christian material seized will be destroyed.
The attorney-general’s office will send a letter to Finland’s embassy to express displeasure over their conduct, he added.
Proselytizing of Muslims, who comprise nearly two-thirds of Malaysia’s 31 million people, by members of other religions is forbidden in Malaysia, although the reverse is allowed. Muslims are also not legally permitted to change religion.
Finnish news agency STT reported that one of those detained belongs to Joosua Missio, a Finnish Christian youth group known for promoting healthy lifestyles and touring the Nordic country’s music festivals with their own “Finland to Jesus” bus.
Chairman of the Malaysian Genting Group developer Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay cuts a ceremonial ribbon to open a casino in Singapore. Photo: Joan Leong / Associated Press
KUALA LUMPUR — Resort developer Genting Malaysia has filed a lawsuit in California seeking at least USD$1 billion in damages from Walt Disney Co. and Fox Entertainment Group for alleged breach of contract related to a theme park, the company said Tuesday.
The lawsuit filed Monday in the Central California District Court cites damages from Fox’s withdrawal from an agreement set in 2013 to license its intellectual property for a Fox World theme park in Resort World Genting, a sprawling facility perched on a mountain in Malaysia.
The theme park would have been Fox’s first.
According to Genting’s complaint, Fox issued a “notice of default” aimed at ending the agreement.
Despite disagreements over the specific terms of the deal, Genting said in a statement that Fox had no grounds to pull out. The complaint also alleges that Disney and 21st Century Fox interfered with the contract and caused Twentieth Century Fox Licensing and Merchandising, part of Fox Entertainment, to breach it.
Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox raised issues because Genting’s resort includes a casino, which conflicts with Disney’s stance against gambling.
Genting says it has invested nearly $180 million in the Fox project. Its most recent quarterly report said the group was focused on developing its resort and on preparing to roll out the “highly anticipated 20th Century Fox World Theme Park” as well as another attraction, the Skytropolis indoor theme park.
The opening of the Fox themed park had been planned for the first half of 2019.
Tongkum is led off the truck that brought him from Chai Nat province Tuesday and into Bangkok’s Khan Na Yao Police Station.
CHAI NAT – An impoverished farmer in the central province of Chai Nat was in tears Tuesday morning when police arrived to confiscate the beloved buffalo he’d just purchased with the help of online donors.
Surat Phaeoket had to lead Tongkum the buffalo onto a truck after the animal’s seller, a local government official, complained to police he had not wanted to sell the now-famous buffalo. Police said the farmer committed fraud by crowdfunding the money used to buy the buffalo and have frozen his accounts.
“I don’t want to cry anymore,” an upset sounding Surat said several hours later. “When leading him onto the truck, I told him that he will come back to our home to be with me together soon. I told him to wait just a few more days.”
Tongkum was taken to Bangkok’s Khan Na Yao Police Station, where he will remain until the court decides who owns him.
Around back, reporters were led past a cutout of Col. Singh Singhdet, the station chief, in cowboy gear to a corral containing a shed wrapped with mosquito netting. There, officers said they would take turns trying to bring the smile back to Tongkum’s face.
“The environment should still be good for him,” said one cop on the scene now tasked with buffalo care. “It’s still a natural environment.”
Surat said the animal’s well-being will suffer.
Tongkum at the Khan Na Yao Police Station on Tuesday.
“I’m so worried about him. He needs to play in water all the time and roll in mud so he can be protected from mosquitoes. He also eats a lot of grass,” Surat said.
Singh said he believes Surat misled the public about the seriousness of Tongkum’s situation.
“Surat exploited people’s pity to solicit money, which is illegal,” Singh said.
Boonlert Kanpakdee, Tongkum’s former owner and a lesser local official in Chai Nat, called Surat a beggar Monday for appealing online for the 100,000 baht he used to buy Tongkum after the pairbecame internet famous.
Surat denies making any misleading statements in his public appeal.
“I will do my best to show my innocence. I will ask for legal help,” Surat said. He said he did not have legal representation.
Boonlert was accompanied Monday to the police station by a media-hungry attorney who said he’d donated 100 baht and had now taken it back. He and one other had come forward to reclaim their donations, Singh said.
A police officer washes Tongkum on Tuesday at the Khan Na Yao police station.
Singh said that Boonlert did indeed name a price of 100,000 baht for Tongkum. He said that Surat posted a video clip of himself crying and asking for money lest Tongkum be killed.
Surat denies making such a clip. None could be found online. He did make appeals for support through various media channels, some of which embellished his tale including a few news accounts that the buffalo faced the slaughterhouse.
“Surat really does love buffaloes. He wanted this buffalo so much because he has a female one he wants [Tongkhum] to mate with,” Singh said. “If both sides fight it out, then he’ll stay here for a long time.”
Col. Singh Singhdet in Tongkum’s shed at the Khan Na Yao Police Station.
This illustration made available by NASA in October 2016 shows an illustration of NASA's InSight lander about to land on the surface of Mars. Image: NASA
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — A NASA spacecraft designed to drill down into Mars’ interior landed on the planet Monday after a perilous, supersonic plunge through its red skies, setting off jubilation among scientists who had waited in white-knuckle suspense for confirmation to arrive across 100 million miles of space.
Flight controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, leaped out of their chairs, screaming, dancing and hugging, upon learning that InSight had arrived on Mars, the graveyard for a multitude of previous missions.
“Touchdown confirmed!” a flight controller called out just before 3 p.m. EST, instantly dispelling the anxiety that had gripped the control room as the spacecraft made its six-minute descent.
Because of the distance between Earth and Mars, it took eight minutes for confirmation to arrive, relayed by a pair of tiny satellites that had been trailing InSight throughout the six-month, 300-million-mile (482-million-kilometer) journey.
The two satellites not only transmitted the good news in almost real time, they also sent back InSight’s first snapshot of Mars just 4½ minutes after landing.
The picture was speckled with dirt because the dust cover was still on the lander’s camera, but the terrain around the spacecraft looked smooth and sandy with just one sizable rock visible – pretty much what scientists had hoped for. Better photos are expected in the days ahead, after the dust covers come off.
It was NASA’s – indeed, humanity’s – eighth successful landing at Mars since the 1976 Viking probes, and the first in six years. NASA’s Curiosity rover, which arrived in 2012, is still on the move on Mars.
“Flawless,” declared JPL’s chief engineer, Rob Manning. “This is what we really hoped and imagined in our mind’s eye,” he added. “Sometimes things work out in your favor.”
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, presiding over his first Mars landing as the space agency’s boss, said: “What an amazing day for our country.”
InSight, a USD$1 billion international project, includes a German mechanical mole that will burrow down 16 feet (5 meters) to measure Mars’ internal heat. The lander also has a French seismometer for measuring quakes, if they exist on our smaller, geologically calmer neighbor. Another experiment will calculate Mars’ wobble to reveal the makeup of the planet’s core.
“In the coming months and years even, history books will be rewritten about the interior of Mars,” said JPL’s director, Michael Watkins.
Seven hours after touchdown, NASA reported that InSight’s vital solar panels were open and recharging its batteries.
Over the next few “sols” – or Martian days of 24 hours, 39½ minutes – flight controllers will also assess the health of InSight’s all-important robot arm and its science instruments.
Many Mars-bound spacecraft launched by the U.S., Russia and other countries have been lost or destroyed over the years, with a success rate of just 40 percent, not counting InSight.
NASA went with its old, straightforward approach this time, using a parachute and braking engines to get InSight’s speed from 12,300 mph (19,800 kph) when it pierced the Martian atmosphere, about 77 miles (114 kilometers) up, to 5 mph (8kph) at touchdown. The danger was that the spacecraft could burn up in the atmosphere or bounce off it.
The three-legged InSight settled on the western side of Elysium Planitia, the plain that NASA was aiming for. Project manager Tom Hoffman said the spacecraft landed close to the bull’s-eye, but NASA did not have yet have the final calculations.
He said that it was hard to tell from the first photo whether there were any slopes nearby, but that it appeared he got the flat, smooth “parking lot” he was hoping for.
Museums, planetariums and libraries across the U.S. held viewing parties to watch the events unfold at JPL. NASA TV coverage was also shown on the giant screen in New York’s Times Square, where crowds huddled under umbrellas in the rain.
The 800-pound (360-kilogram) InSight is stationary and will operate from the same spot for the next two years, the duration of a Martian year. It will take months to set up and fine-tune the instruments, and lead scientist Bruce Banerdt said he doesn’t expect to start getting a stream of solid data until late next spring.
“It’s going to be awesome. I can’t wait to start seeing marsquakes,” Hoffman said.
Mars’ well-preserved interior provides a snapshot of what Earth may have looked like following its formation 4.5 billion years ago, according to Banerdt. While Earth is active seismically, Mars “decided to rest on its laurels” after it formed, he said.
By examining and mapping the interior of Mars, scientists hope to learn why the rocky planets in our solar system turned out so different and why Earth became a haven for life.
Still, there are no life detectors aboard InSight. NASA’s next mission, the Mars 2020 rover, will prowl for rocks that might contain evidence of ancient life.
The question of whether life ever existed in Mars’ wet, watery past is what keeps driving NASA back to the fourth rock from the sun.
