The exterior of Chanthaburi Court on Nov. 12, 2019.
CHANTHABURI — A retired police officer who was the defendant in a land dispute case died after he opened fire in the courtroom, killing the plaintiff and his lawyer on Tuesday morning.
Thanin Chantratip, 67, was shot by an on-duty police officer inside a Chanthaburi courtroom and severely wounded before he died at a hospital later in the afternoon, a court official said.
Spokesman for the Court of Justice Suriyan Hongwilai said the shooting took place before court was in session, when the judge and court officials were outside and everyone else was waiting for all the parties to arrive.
Suriyan said Thanin was in the courtroom waiting for a hearing in a criminal lawsuit related to false complaints and perjury.
Thanin started arguing when the plaintiff, Bancha Porameesanaporn, entered the room with his wife and his two lawyers.
Thanin then drew his gun, shot Bancha, and began firing at others in the courtroom, until a policeman brought him down, according to Suriyan.
Bancha and his lawyer Wijai Sukharom died at the hospital, while Bancha’s wife Supaporn Porameesanaporn and another lawyer Wichai Udomthanapat were severely injured. Both Supaporn and Wichai are currently comatose.
Chanthaburi provincial police chief Sathien Boonkham said the police are investigating how Thanin managed to bring a gun inside the court past the metal detectors.
Suriyan the Court of Justice spokesman said the two parties often got into quarrels with each other in the past hearings.
According to media reports, Thanin and Bancha were in a decade-long legal dispute over a plot of land in Tha Mai and Kaeng Hang Maeo districts of Chanthaburi.
Bancha was a lawyer for former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra during her rice-pledging scheme trials.
TOKYO — A 25-year-old pharmacist made history as the first Thai to ever win the Miss International pageant Tuesday.
Sireethorn “Bint” Leearamwat became the first Thai to win a prestigious international pageant in over 30 years at the Miss International 2019 pageant held Tuesday at the Tokyo Dome.
“I didn’t expect to be here,” she said upon winning. “I’m very proud that I can be here. I’m so proud of myself and so proud of my team and so proud of my nation … I hope all women do it like me. If you have a dream, follow it,” she said.
Miss International is a Japan-based pageant held since 1960, and is one of the Big Four prestigious international pageants, the others being Miss World, Miss Universe, and Miss Earth. Sireethorn brings home the first Big Four crown since 1988, when Thailand’s Porntip Nakhirunkanok won Miss Universe.
“Do you know I was criticized a lot when I was crowned as Miss Thailand?” Sireethorn said during the speech portion of the pageant, where finalists had 45 seconds to talk. “I dare to dream to be a beauty queen, even there’s nothing really to my career, a pharmacist, I used all critiques as a power to make myself improve to be the best representative and make my nation proud.”
Bint graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Mahidol University and currently works as a product specialist for immunotherapy medication. Her win as Miss Thailand (Nang Sao Thai) earlier this year, which determined who would be Thailand’s representative to the Miss International pageant, was her first time on the pageant circuit.
Municipal city workers pick up krathongs Nov. 12, 2019 on the Chao Phraya in Bangkok. Photo: Aswin Kwanmuang / Facebook
BANGKOK — Bangkokians floated 40 percent fewer krathongs than they did last year, and halved the number of styrofoam krathongs used.
According to data collected from municipal workers, Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang said Tuesday morning that the City Hall cleaned up a total of 502,024 krathongs, which is 340,000 fewer than the 841,327 floated for Loy Krathong 2018.
Aswin said that 483,264 of those krathongs, or around 96 percent were made of biodegradable materials. About 4 percent of the krathongs, or 18,760, were made of styrofoam. In 2018, more than twice as many foam krathongs were used – 44,883.
“I’m happy youths of today are thinking of new ways to float krathongs, such as ice krathongs, online krathongs, and other environmentally-friendly krathongs and showing care for the quality of our waterways,” Aswin wroteon his Facebook page Tuesday. “I hope everyone will keep up this effort not just for Loy Krathong.”
The Bangkok district with the most krathongs was Lat Krabang, which used 33,353 krathongs, while Prawet district used the most foam krathongs, or 1,250.
Biodegradable krathongs will be processed to make natural fertilizer at a factory in Nong Khaem district, like last year. Foam krathongs will be sent to the landfill.
A total of 203 municipal city workers on 40 boats covered a 34 kilometer stretch from the Rama VII bridge area down the Chao Phraya to the Bang Na district, or collected krathongs from public parks and ponds.
Popular online krathong websites saw much traffic. On MThai’s Loy Krathong page alone, the online counter floated a total of 461,391 krathongs as of press time, or more than 90 percent the actual krathongs people floated in Bangkok.
Another caveat of online krathongs – one can read the wishes that people put down in the great pond of cyberspace. One user on Sanook’s pagewrote, “May I stop being lazy, and become a new, industrious person who is determined at life.”
A meme posted by Toxic Ant page showing Greta Thunberg dressed up as Phra Mae Kongka, or Mother Ganges, Monday night may explain why some Thais didn’t float a krathong this year.
“Are you trying to pay respect to someone by dumping trash in their home? How dare you,” the meme says, riffing off of the Swedish climate activist’s UN speech in September.
A viral video with more than 2.6 million views showed a way to join in the festivities without creating trash:
The 15-year-old, who only identified herself to the media as “Orn,” selling krathongs on Nov. 11, 2019 at a stall in front of Central Plaza Nakhon Ratchasima.
NAKHON RATCHASIMA — Police on Monday said they would seek a warrant to arrest copyright agents who allegedly attempted to extort a 15-year-old girl of 50,000 baht for copyright infringement.
Korat provincial police chief Maj. Gen. Sujin Nitpanit said the investigation was almost complete and court warrants would be issued for copyright agents, whose names have been withheld by police, by the end of this week.
“We are waiting for documents from relevant copyright holders,” Sujin said. “We have also established a committee to inquire police officers accused of involving with the sting operation.”
About 50 vendors in Korat yesterday were also preparing to file criminal complaints against the same copyright agents who ordered krathongs decorated with cartoon characters from a teenage girl and then threatened her to pay fines or face criminal charges last week.
One of the vendors said that her daughter is the victim of a similar sting operation, and they paid 30,000 baht to avoid criminal charges after her daughter made Rilakkuma bear krathongs. Vendors claim a total collective loss of around one million baht. Police said they would take the 50 vendors’ complaints into question.
Korat City police chief Col. Kachen Setaputta had been moved from his post Friday due to allegations that police officers under his command were colluding with copyright agents.
More victims in other provinces have also came out to claim they had been similarly extorted after making customized products adorned with cartoon characters.
Kamphaeng Phet vendor Kadnang Ketwong, 35, said on Sunday that a man ordered her in June to make plastic wicker water bottle pouches printed with Doraemon, a robot cat from a Japanese cartoon. Once she brought the order to the customer, the man claimed to be a copyright agent and demanded 50,000 baht from her.
She asked the provincial justice office to provide her legal assistance and was preparing to file criminal following the girl’s case which broke the headlines last week.
Meanwhile, the girl in Korat earned over 16,000 baht on Loy Krathong day Monday as people queued up to buy her krathongs made of ice cream cones at a stall in front of Central Plaza Nakhon Ratchasima.
She said her floats sold out in about an hour and she would use half for tuition fees, and give her parents the other half.
Combination photo taken on Feb. 15 (L) and Feb. 16, 2019 shows a flower grower in southwest China's Yunnan Province "sends" a flower to a woman in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Hu Chao, Zhang Keren / Xinhua
KUNMING, China (Xinhua) — Li Hongyun, a flower grower from Kunming, capital of southwest China’s Yunnan Province, has never been to Thailand, yet the roses he plants have gained popularity in Bangkok, the nation’s capital.
Weeks before each Valentine’s Day, Li receives orders from florists in Bangkok. He then begins to pick fresh flowers at about 8 a.m. every day, and the packed flowers will be available for sale at a Bangkok market within 40 hours thanks to the Kunming-Bangkok Highway.
Kunming, known as “the flower capital of Asia,” boasts a warm climate that allows flowers of various kinds to blossom year-round. The Dounan Flower Market, the biggest in Kunming, sold about 8.2 billion flowers to more than 50 countries and regions in 2018.
Flower growers work at a flower industrial park in Yi autonomous county of Shilin, southwest China’s Yunnan Province, Feb. 15, 2019. Photo: Hu Chao / Xinhua
“Thai people send flowers to each other on important festivals,” said Ma Na, a Kunming florist running a business in Bangkok. “Carnations, roses and lilies are particularly in high demand, and these flowers growing in temperate regions can only be imported as the weather is too hot in Bangkok,” Ma said.
“Thailand is a key overseas market for the flowers exported from Kunming,” Ma said, adding that compared with other major flower-growing areas such as the Netherlands and Africa, Kunming is much closer to Bangkok, with lower transportation costs and price advantages.
“Dounan Flower Market was one of my favorite places to visit when I was studying in Kunming,” said Siraprapa Inpa, who had never expected that she would still be able to buy fresh flowers from Kunming after returning to Thailand.
Owner of a flower store checks flowers from southwest China’s Yunnan Province in Bangkok, Thailand, Feb. 10, 2019. Photo: Zhang Keren / Xinhua
In addition to the trade in flowers, fruits, seafood, rubber and other goods, exchanges and cooperation between Thailand and China in a variety of fields have become closer and closer.
China and Thailand agreed to build the China-Thailand railway into a successful example in bilateral cooperation within the Belt and Road Initiative framework, according to a recent joint press statement released during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s official visit to the Southeast Asian country.
“I’m looking forward to more convenient trade services so that more and more Thai people are able to smell the fragrance of the flowers from Kunming,” Ma said. ■
Nunthapong Boonnao (Front) and Manassawee Suangkaew (1st, R) go on live-streaming to promote their online clothing shop registered in Lazada, a major online shopping company in Southeast Asia, at Bangkok, Thailand, Oct. 21, 2019. Photo: Zhang Keren / Xinhua
HANGZHOU, China (Xinhua) — China’s Singles’ Day sales on Alibaba’s e-commerce platform TMall exceeded 213.5 billion yuan (30.47 billion U.S. dollars) at 4:31 p.m. on Monday.
China’s Singles’ Day, a shopping event akin to Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States, was first designed by Alibaba’s e-commerce platform Tmall on Nov. 11, 2009. Over the past decade, the online shopping event has developed from a domestic online sales promotion to a global shopping carnival.
The total sales on the Singles’ Day last year was 213.5 billion yuan.
Figures released earlier Monday showed that sales hit 10 billion yuan after just one minute and 36 seconds into Monday. And it only took one hour, 26 minutes and seven seconds to hit 120.7 billion yuan, exceeding the total sales on Singles’ Day in 2016.
Those figures have caused some raised eyebrows as many believed that there would be a fall in sales amid China’s slower growth.
The Singles’ Day shopping festival on TMall, which was first designed by Tmall on Nov. 11 in 2009, has now become one of the largest online shopping sprees worldwide.
At its peak, 544,000 orders were placed in one second on TMall, setting a new record for peak online traffic in the world, according to Alibaba.
The new records reflect China’s rising economic strength, as well as the benefits of technology development and global trade, said Zhou Mi, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation affiliated to the Ministry of Commerce.
“As a whole, the purchasing power of Chinese customers is on the rise, enabling them to buy more high-quality products,” said Zhou. “Meanwhile, technology development and more robust global trade have also helped lower the price of commodities.”
The giant screen shows that Tmall reached a 10 billion yuan worth of sales in 1 minute and 36 seconds on Singles’ Day at the media center in Alibaba Group’s Xixi Park, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Nov. 11, 2019. Photo: Huang Zongzhi / Xinhua
More than 22,000 overseas brands from 200 countries and regions participated in this year’s shopping spree in China, according to Alibaba.
DOMESTIC PRODUCTS GAIN POPULARITY
Initial data provided by TMall on this year’s Singles’ Day showed that China-made products are gaining increasing consumer recognition.
Among the 148 brands with a turnover of over 100 million yuan in the first two hours of transactions on Monday, more than 80 were domestic brands, accounting for more than half of the total.
Notably, sales of tech giant Huawei’s flagship shop on TMall surpassed 1 billion yuan in one hour and 19 minutes, while cosmetics brand Perfect Diary reached sales of 100 million yuan in just 13 minutes.
“Many products made or designed in China are both appealing and of high quality, and they also have the potential to be trendsetters,” said Li Shengchao, a marketing director at TMall’s clothing section.
WORLDWIDE SHOPPING CARNIVAL
Over the past decade, the shopping festival is no longer a carnival for Chinese consumers but has now become a feast for participants from all over the world.
Consumers from over 200 countries and regions celebrate the shopping carnival via platforms such as AliExpress, an international online shopping platform under Alibaba, Lazada and Tmall Global.
A Pakistani man visiting the AliExpress website in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan on Aug. 20, 2019. Photo: Ahmad Kamal / Xinhua
Ibrahim Hussein Ali, a Somalian comedian residing in China, said he spends thousands of yuan on clothes and electronic devices on Nov. 11 every year.
Expecting such online shopping platforms in his homeland Africa, Ibrahim said he hopes China and Africa can offer their quality products to each other more conveniently in the future.
Apart from multinational giants such as Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble and Nestle, an increasing number of small companies from Europe, Asia and Africa, have expanded their presence in the shopping gala.
Before the Singles’ Day, sales of imported goods from Latvia, Sri Lanka, India, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Russia, Cuba, Cyprus, Argentina, Greece, Cambodia and Rwanda boomed more than 200 percent, according to TMall Global.
In addition, innovations in marketing modes are boosting international product sales. This year, e-commerce platforms including Tmall, AliExpress and Lazada have established an overseas e-commerce social network featuring online celebrities.
Nearly 1,000 foreign web celebrities broadcast live to all parts of the world 24 hours a day in dozens of languages, which has been considered as a remarkable role in stimulating global consumers’ shopping desires.
A staff of the Alibaba Group speaks in front of a giant screen showing the real-time sales data of Tmall on Singles’ Day at the media center in Alibaba Group’s Xixi Park, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Nov. 11, 2019. Photo: Yin Xiaosheng / Xinhua
Zhu Keli, a researcher on the new economy with the Development Research Center of the State Council, said the 11-year development of Singles’ Day demonstrates e-commerce consumption’s role in boosting economic growth and enhancing enterprise capability and indicates high-end, personalized and diverse consumption trends.
Story: Yin Xiaosheng, Guo Xiaoyu, Zhang Xuan, Cui Li, Xia Xiao and Zhou Erjie; Video reporters: Yin Xiaosheng, Li Tao and Kong Linghang; Video editor: Jia Xiaotong
BANGKOK — For the first time, the Michelin Guide awarded two-star ratings to Thai restaurants in Thailand, as well as recognizing eateries in the northern city of Chiang Mai.
The 2020 edition of Michelin’s Guide for Thailand gave two-star ratings to Sorn and R-Haan, Thai restaurants that had previously gotten one star, and for the first time included eateries in Chiang Mai.
“I cried tears of joy today. But this past year, the farmers in the south didn’t cry of joy, but they cried because they can’t sell the mangosteen they grew. That’s why my menu has Thai cuisine,” Chef Supaksorn Jongsiri of Sorn said. “Sea urchin from Japan sells for 20,000 baht per kilo, but mangosteen sells for 3 baht per kilo. … I couldn’t be here without the farmers of Thailand.”
Chef Chumpol Jangprai of R-Haan said he was proud to have elevated Thai cuisine, by Thais to the two-star rank.
“It’s the proudest day in my life as a Thai chef, to bring Thai food to this number one rank for the first time,” he said. “I feel so fulfilled. I believed in the knowledge of our ancestors and their varied cooking skills that were passed down.”
Restaurants that had won two-star ratings in previous years, such as modern German restaurant Suhring, were not Thai restaurants.
Sorn, R-Haan, and four new one-star ratings are all located in Bangkok. The guide for the first time also includes Chiang Mai province, and awarded 17 restaurants there a distinction award for good value.
A total of 24 restaurants, four of which are new entries, received one star. All the new entries are located in Bangkok, including Thai restaurant Khao in Ekkamai.
Perennial favorites such as street food joint Jay Fai, home of the famous crab omelet, and Bo.lan continued to retain their one star. Jay Fay continued to be the only street food shop with a star.
Both Gaggan, which received two stars in both 2018 and 2019, and L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, which received one star for those two years, are now closed.
Here’s the full list:
Two stars
R-Haan and Sorn, which each received one star in 2019, got a star upgrade for 2020.
Both are Thai restaurants, with Sorn serving Southern Thai cuisine. Le Normandie, Mezzaluna, and Suhring all retained their two stars from 2019.
One star
Chef’s Table, 80/20 Eighty Twenty, Khao, Table 38, were the new four restaurants in Bangkok to receive one star.
The following 20 restaurants that won one star last year retained their award: Bo.lan, Canvas, Chim by Siam Wisdom, Elements, Gaa, Ginza Sushi Ichi, J’aime by Jean-Michel Loran, Jay Fai, Le Du, Methavalai Sorndaeng, Nahm, Paste, Pru, Ruean Panya, Saawaan, Saneh Jaan, Savelberg,Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin, Suanthip, and Upstairs by Mikkeller.
“Most certainly the most famous street food restaurant in the world!” Poullennec said as Supinya “Jay Fai” Junsuta received her award.
Pru, in Phuket, is still the only restaurant outside of Bangkok to have a star.
Bib Gourmand:
There are 94 restaurants with the Bib Gourmand award, with 27 new entries: eight in Bangkok, 17 in Chiang Mai, and two in Phang Nga.
Bangkok: Bangkok Bold Kitchen (Central Embassy branch), Here Hai, Klang Suan, Konchong Konprung, Plu, Prama 9 Kaiyang, Siam Charming, Tung Sui Heng Pochana (Stadium One branch)
Phang Nga: Kin-Kub-Ei, Naam Yoi
Chiang Mai: Gai Yang Cherng Doi, Ginger Farm Kitchen, Han Theung Chiang Mai, Huan Soontaree, Huen Muan Jai, Khao Soi Mae Manee, Khao Tom Yong (Suthep Road), KruaYa, Kuakai Nimman, Meena Rice Based Cuisine, Na Chantra, Racharos, Rote Yiam Beef Noodles, Saiyut and Doctor Sai Kitchen, Sanpakoi Kanomjeen, SP Chicken, The House by Ginger.
The Michelin Guide 2020 awards ceremony on Nov. 12, 2019 at The Marriot Bangkok The Surawongse Hotel.
-FILE- In this Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017, file photo members of Myanmar's Rohingya ethnic minority walk through rice fields after crossing the border into Bangladesh near Cox's Bazar's Teknaf area. Gambia has filed a case at the United Nations' highest court in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Nov. 11, 2019, accusing Myanmar of genocide in its campaign against the Rohingya Muslim minority. A statement released Monday by lawyers for Gambia says the case also asks the International Court of Justice to order measures "to stop Myanmar's genocidal conduct immediately." Photo: Bernat Armangue / AP File
THE HAGUE (AP) — Myanmar was accused Monday of genocide at the U.N.’s highest court for its campaign against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority, as lawyers asked the International Court of Justice to urgently order measures “to stop Myanmar’s genocidal conduct immediately.”
Gambia filed the case on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Gambia’s justice minister and attorney general, Abubacarr Marie Tambadou, told The Associated Press he wanted to “send a clear message to Myanmar and to the rest of the international community that the world must not stand by and do nothing in the face of terrible atrocities that are occurring around us. It is a shame for our generation that we do nothing while genocide is unfolding right before our own eyes.”
Myanmar officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Myanmar’s military began a harsh counterinsurgency campaign against the Rohingya in August 2017 in response to an insurgent attack. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh to escape what has been called an ethnic cleansing campaign involving mass rapes, killings and the torching of homes.
The head of a U.N. fact-finding mission on Myanmar warned last month that “there is a serious risk of genocide recurring.”
The mission also said in its final report in September that Myanmar should be held responsible in international legal forums for alleged genocide against the Rohingya.
The case filed at the International Court of Justice, also known as the world court, alleges that Myanmar’s campaign against the Rohingya, which includes “killing, causing serious bodily and mental harm, inflicting conditions that are calculated to bring about physical destruction, imposing measures to prevent births, and forcible transfers, are genocidal in character because they are intended to destroy the Rohingya group in whole or in part.”
Tambadou said in a statement: “Gambia is taking this action to seek justice and accountability for the genocide being committed by Myanmar against the Rohingya, and to uphold and strengthen the global norm against genocide that is binding upon all states.”
Param-Preet Singh, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, called the case a “game changer” and called on other states to support it.
The world court ordering provisional measures “could help stop the worst ongoing abuses against the Rohingya in Myanmar,” she said.
The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor also asked judges at that court in July for permission to open a formal investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed against Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar.
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she wants to investigate crimes of deportation, inhumane acts and persecution allegedly committed as Rohingya were driven from Myanmar, which is not a member of the global court, into Bangladesh, which is.
The International Criminal Court holds individuals responsible for crimes while the International Court of Justice settles disputes between nations. Both courts are based in The Hague.
Last month, Myanmar’s U.N. ambassador, Hau Do Suan, called the U.N. fact-finding mission “one-sided” and based on “misleading information and secondary sources.” He said Myanmar’s government takes accountability seriously and that perpetrators of all human rights violations “causing the large outflow of displaced persons to Bangladesh must be held accountable.”
Simon Adams, Executive Director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, welcomed the filing.
“The international community failed to prevent a genocide in Myanmar, but it is not too late to hold the State of Myanmar accountable for its crimes,” he said.
Yasmin Ullah, a Rohingya activist based in Canada, said the court case helps by recognizing the suffering of her people.
“It is so important for us to feel like our pain is recognized because we’ve internalized all our lives that we’re not worthy and so that’s why it’s such an emotional moment,” she told AP after a panel discussion in The Hague.
“But it also is important that the word ‘genocide’ has been uttered so much within one hour … and we’ve pushed so hard for it for such a long time and finally it is being heard.”
In this photo taken from the outskirts of the village of Alakamis, in Idil province, southeastern Turkey, a Turkish army vehicles is driven in Turkey after conducting a joint patrol with Russian forces in Syria, Friday, Nov. 8, 2019. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says a protester has been killed when he was run over in the village of Sarmasakh, Syria near the border by a Turkish vehicle during a joint patrol with Russia.The man was among residents who pelted with shoes and stones Turkish and Russian troops who were conducting their third joint patrol in northeastern Syria, under a cease-fire deal brokered by Moscow that forced Kurdish fighters to withdraw from areas bordering Turkey. Photo: Mehmet Guzel / AP
ANKARA (AP) — Turkey on Monday deported citizens of the United States and Denmark who fought for the Islamic State and made plans to expel other foreign nationals as the government began a new push to send back captured foreign fighters to their home countries, a Turkish official said.
The move comes just over a week after the Turkish interior minister said Turkey was not a “hotel” for IS fighters and criticized Western nations for their reluctance to take back citizens who had joined the ranks of the extremist militant group as it sought to establish a “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said last week that about 1,200 foreign IS fighters were in Turkish prisons and 287 members, including women and children, were recaptured during Turkey’s offensive in Syria.
Several European countries, including Britain, have stripped IS fighters of their nationalities to prevent their return.
A U.S. and a Danish national were deported from Turkey on Monday, while a German national was scheduled to be deported later in the day, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Interior Ministry spokesman Ismail Catakli as saying. Seven other German nationals were scheduled to leave the country on Thursday, he said.
Two Irish nationals, two German nationals and 11 French nationals who were captured in Syria were also to be transferred to their home countries soon, Catakli said.
The U.S. did not immediately comment on Ankara’s announcement.
Turkey’s Sabah newspaper, which is close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, reported that the U.S. citizen who had been deported was stuck in a heavily militarized no man’s land between the Greece and Turkey borders.
Greek police said in a statement that Turkish authorities had first tried to deport a United States citizen of Arab origin on Oct. 11 on grounds that he had exceeded his legal stay in Turkey. The man, however, stated that he did not wish to enter Greece and returned to Turkey, accompanied by Turkish police.
On Monday, he returned to the same border station on his own and asked to enter Greece, police said. Greek authorities refused him entry, sending him back to Turkey.
Stavros Tziamalides, an official from the border village of Kastanies, said the border gate was shut on the Greek side and there was a greater presence of Greek police and border guards from the Frontex European border agency.
In Denmark, Justice Minister Nick Hakkerup told Danish broadcaster TV2 that any Danish citizens who fought for IS and are repatriated to the country “must be punished as severely as possible.”
Germany said it will not refuse entry to its own citizens, but added that as far as German officials know, the citizen being deported Monday was not involved with IS.
In Bosnia, government officials announced on Monday that citizens who had fought with IS could return to the country, while a Dutch court ruled on the same day that the country must attempt to bring home children whose mothers traveled to Syria to join Islamic extremist groups. The decision came in response to a case filed by lawyers on behalf of 23 women and their 56 children who are housed in camps in northern Syria.
In Denmark, the weekly newspaper Weekendavisen said the name of the Danish citizen being deported was Ahmad Salem el-Haj, who faces terror charges in Denmark.
While Turkey has quietly deported IS sympathizers for years, it raised the issue more forcefully after Western nations refused to back its invasion of northeastern Syria and its offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters, whom Ankara considers terrorists linked to Kurdish insurgents fighting inside Turkey. Many countries have voiced concerns that the Turkish incursion would lead to a resurgence of IS.
Turkey has been accused of enabling the influx of thousands of foreign IS sympathizers into Syria over the years. At the height of the extremist group’s power, the Turkish border crossings were the main route for those hoping to join IS in Syria. Turkey has denied the accusations and later stepped up security at its borders, including by profiling possible IS fighters at airports and building a wall along parts of its porous border.
Turkey was hit by a wave of IS attacks in 2015 and 2016, including one by a gunman who opened fire at an Istanbul nightclub during New Year’s celebrations in the early hours of 2017 and killed 39 people.
In Bosnia, Security Minister Dragan Mektic said Monday that about 260 Bosnian citizens remained in the camps in Syria, including approximately 100 men and 160 women and children. He says only confirmed Bosnian citizens would be taken in. Bosnia has introduced prison terms of up to 10 years for its citizens who fight in conflicts abroad or recruit others.
A court in The Hague, Netherlands, on Monday ordered the government to make attempts to repatriate women and children whose mothers traveled to Syria to join Islamic extremist groups.
“The children are not responsible for the actions of their parents, however serious they are,” the court said, adding that while Dutch officials must use “all possible means” to repatriate them, the state also “cannot be ordered to take serious security risks.”
In Berlin, German foreign ministry spokesman Christofer Burger said Turkey told Germany about its plan to deport German citizens. He said they include three men, five women and two children.
So far, Burger said, German authorities cannot confirm that the 10 were involved with IS and, in the case of the person being deported Monday, they know of no link to IS. There are indications that two of the women were in Syria, but neither of the children is believed to have been in Syria.
Story: Suzan Fraser. Geir Moulson in Berlin, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki, Greece, contributed to this report.
Commuters walk on the railway after their train service is disrupted by pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019. Protesters disrupted the morning commute in Hong Kong on Tuesday after an especially violent day in the Chinese city that has been wracked by anti-government protests for more than five months. (AP Photo)
HONG KONG (AP) — Protesters disrupted the morning commute in Hong Kong on Tuesday after an especially violent day in the Chinese city that has been wracked by anti-government protests for more than five months.
Blocking streets and subway stations has been a common tactic of the anti-government protesters, but recent weeks have been marked by clashes with police, escalating vandalism against government and commercial property, and assaults by both protesters and pro-Beijing supporters.
On Monday, a police officer drew his gun during a struggle with protesters, shooting one in the abdomen. In another neighborhood, a person was set on fire after an apparent argument. The Hong Kong hospital authority said both were in critical condition. Video of another incident showed a policeman on a motorcycle riding through a group of protesters in an apparent attempt to disperse them.
Police say those events are being investigated but defend the officers’ actions as necessary for their own safety.
Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam pledged to “spare no effort” to halt the protests in comments likely to fuel speculation that harsher legal and police measures were planned.
“I do not want to go into details, but I just want to make it very clear that we will spare no effort in finding ways and means that could end the violence in Hong Kong as soon as possible,” Lam told reporters Monday.
Lam also again refused to accept the protesters’ demands for political concessions. “These rioters’ actions have far exceeded their demands, and they are enemies of the people,” she said.
One of their demands is for the government to stop labeling the demonstrators as rioters, which connotes that even peaceful protest is a criminal activity. Their other unmet demands are for democratic changes in Hong Kong’s government, criminal charges to be dropped against protesters and for police actions against the protesters to be independently investigated.
Following Lam’s comments, confrontations between protesters and police continued into the night, with black-clad demonstrators torching at least one vehicle and blocking an intersection in the Mongkok district that has been the scene of many clashes. A taxi driver was taken away by ambulance with head wounds, although it wasn’t immediately clear how he had been injured.
In Washington, the U.S. government said it is watching the situation with “grave concern.”
“?We condemn violence on all sides, extend our sympathies to victims of violence regardless of their political inclinations, and call for all parties — police and protestors — to exercise restraint,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.
She urged the government to address the underlying concerns behind the protests and the protesters to respond to efforts at dialogue.
In a widely distributed video of the police-involved shooting Monday morning, an officer shoos away a group of protesters out of an intersection, then drew his gun on a protester who approached him. As the two struggle, another protester in black approaches. The offer fires at the second protester, who falls to the ground. The officer appeared to fire again, but police said only one protester was hit.
It was the second police shooting of a protester since the demonstrations began, although police have repeatedly drawn firearms to ward off attacks. Police said they arrested more than 260 people on Monday, raising to 3,560 the number of arrests since the movement erupted in June.
Few details were available about the burning incident in the Ma On Shan neighborhood. Video posted online shows the victim arguing with a group of young people before someone douses him with a liquid and strikes a lighter.
Police fired tear gas and deployed a water cannon in parts of the city and charged onto the campus of Chinese University, where students were protesting. Online video also showed a policeman on a motorcycle riding through a group of protesters in an apparent attempt to disperse them.
The protests initially began over a proposed law that would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China, where they could face opaque and politically sensitive trials. Activists saw the bill as another sign of an erosion in Hong Kong’s autonomy and civic freedoms, which China promised would be maintained for 50 years under a “one nation, two systems” principle when the former British colony returned to Chinese control in 1997.
Lam eventually withdrew the extradition bill but has insisted the violence stop before an further political dialogue can take place.
District council elections on Nov. 24 are seen as a measure of public sentiment toward Hong Kong’s government. Pro-democracy lawmakers have accused the government of trying to provoke violence to justify canceling or postponing the vote.
