Officials to Sue Bangkok Temple School Raiders for 700,000 Baht

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27 February 2019, 15:44

Police lead suspects in the attack on a Bangkok temple school Tuesday out of the Bang Khun Thian police station.

BANGKOK — The Education Ministry said Wednesday it would sue the men who raided a school near a Bangkok temple for more than 700,000 baht compensation in rescheduling university admission tests.

Deputy Minister Udom Kachintorn said the 248 students affected by the attack on Sunday afternoon at the Matthayom Wat Sing School will be given a chance to view their results before deciding on whether to resit examinations next week. He said the ministry is preparing the lawsuit but did not say when it would file the case.

He said the rescheduling is necessary as students’ performance might have been affected by the incident, and that it’s only fair to let them decide whether they were satisfied with their original scores. He added that many test answer sheets were also damaged and couldn’t be read by the marking machine.

Officials on Tuesday said the test venue had been changed to Bangpakok Wittayakom School as students may be traumatized if they return to the same location.

Police charged 24 men with multiple counts, after they were accused of assaulting students, teachers and guards on campus when the school asked an ordination ceremony at Wat Sing to be quiet while exams were underway. Investigators said yesterday that they were seeking arrest warrants for three more suspects seen in security footage during the attack.

Students Affected by School Raid to Retake Test Next Week

Temple Goers Asked to Lower Noise Level Vandalize School

Pakistan Says It Downed 2 Indian Warplanes, Captured Pilot

By

Associated Press

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27 February 2019, 15:27

Kashmiri villagers gather near the wreckage of an Indian aircraft Wednesday after it crashed in Budgam area, outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. Photo: Mukhtar Khan / Associated Press

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s air force shot down two Indian warplanes after they crossed the boundary between the two nuclear-armed rivals in the disputed territory of Kashmir on Wednesday and captured one Indian pilot, a military spokesman said.

The dramatic escalation came hours after Pakistan said mortar shells fired by Indian troops from across the frontier dividing the two sectors of Kashmir killed six civilians and wounded several others.

Pakistan’s army spokesman Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor said Pakistani troops on the ground captured the Indian pilot. One of the downed planes crashed in Pakistan’s part of Kashmir while the other went down in Indian-controlled section of the Himalayan region, he said.

Indian air force spokesman Anupam Banerjee in New Delhi said he had no information on Pakistan’s statement. Earlier, senior Indian police officer Munir Ahmed Khan said an Indian Air Force plane crashed in Indian-controlled sector of Kashmir and that it wasn’t immediately known if there were casualties.

Another police officer, S.P. Pani, said firefighters were at the site in Budgam area where the Indian warplane crashed. Eyewitnesses said soldiers fired in air to keep residents away from the crash site.

Indian news reports said airports in the Indian portion of Kashmir closed for civilian traffic shortly after the air force jet crashed in the area. The Press Trust of India news agency said these airports were located at Srinagar, Jammu and Leh. Indian authorities declined to comment.

Indian administrator Baseer Khan confirmed that the airport in Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir, was closed and said it was a “temporary and precautionary measure.”

Press Trust of India said Indian authorities also closed two airports in northern Punjab state, which borders with Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the foreign ministry in Islamabad said the country’s air force was carrying out airstrikes from within Pakistani airspace across the disputed Kashmir boundary but that this was not in “retaliation to continued Indian belligerence.”

The ministry said Wednesday’s strikes were aimed at “avoiding human loss and collateral damage.” It says the Pakistanis have “no intention of escalation, but are fully prepared to do so if forced into that paradigm. That is why we undertook the action with clear warning and in broad daylight.”

According to local Pakistani police official Mohammad Altaf, the six fatalities in the shelling earlier on Wednesday included children. The shells hit the village of Kotli in Pakistan’s section of Kashmir.

Kashmir is split between Pakistan and India and claimed by both in its entirety. Though Pakistani and Indian troops in Kashmir often trade fire, the latest civilian casualties came a day after tensions escalated sharply following a pre-dawn airstrike and incursion by India on Tuesday that New Delhi said targeted a terrorist training camp in northwestern Pakistan.

Residents on both sides of the de-factor frontier, the so called Line of Control, said there were exchanges of fire between the two sides through the night. In Pakistan’s part of Kashmir, hundreds of villagers fled border towns.

The situation was no different in villages along the Line of Control in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where residents were moving to safer places following the intense exchange of fire, which began Tuesday and continued Wednesday. In New Delhi, Indian officials said Wednesday at least five of their soldiers were wounded in firing by Pakistani troops along the volatile frontier.

Lt. Col. Devender Anand, an Indian army spokesman, said Pakistani soldiers targeted dozens of Indian military positions across the Line of Control throughout the night. An Indian military statement said that “out of anger and frustration,” Pakistan “initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation.”

The statement said Indian troops “retaliated for effect” and claimed to have destroyed five Pakistani posts. It accused Pakistani soldiers of firing mortars and missiles “from civilian houses, using villagers as human shields.”

In Tuesday’s pre-dawn strike by India, Pakistan said Indian warplanes dropped bombs near the Pakistani town of Balakot but there were no casualties.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was expected to convene the National Command Authority on Wednesday to discuss Islamabad’s response to the incursions by Indian warplanes.

On Wednesday, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told state-run Pakistan Television he was in touch with his counterparts across the world about the “Indian aggression,” adding that New Delhi had endangered peace in the region by Tuesday’s airstrike on Pakistan.

In New Delhi, India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said Wednesday her country does not wished to see further escalation of the situation with Pakistan and that it will continue to act with responsibility and restraint.

She said the limited objective of India’s pre-emptive strike inside Pakistan on a terrorist training camp Tuesday was to act decisively against the terrorist infrastructure of Jaish-e-Mohammad group, to pre-empt another terror attack in India.

The tension between Pakistan and India erupted after Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for the Feb. 14 suicide bombing of a convoy of India’s paramilitary forces in the Indian portion of Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops.

Pakistan has said it was not involved in the attack and was ready to help New Delhi in the investigations.

Story: Roshan Mughal, Aijaz Hussain

Officials Order Campaign-Like Bike Event Posters Taken Down

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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27 February 2019, 15:15

A poster for the “Bike From Time to Time" event in Buriram.

BURIRAM — The Election Commission on Wednesday ruled that posters advertising a cycling event in Buriram province must be removed for resembling election posters.

Commissioner Kriangsak Wonglertprayoon said the posters, which promote a biking tournament to be held in May, are too similar to campaign materials, such as the font, style and what appears to be a party name and number.

“These advertisement posters might cause confusion to voters,” Kriangsak said.

The posters were made by organizers of the Buriram Bike Fest, in which cyclists will bike up to 147 kilometers on May 19. They bear close resemblance to thousands of campaign posters that currently plague sidewalks and streets.

“Bike From Time to Time,” the posters declare, using a Thai wordplay on the term pak, which can mean both times and political parties, while a woman on bicycle smiles at the camera in the manner similar to MP candidates.

Listed under “policies” are three different biking routes available in the event. Similar to campaign posters, there’s also a big “X” mark next to number 19, which turns out to be May 19 at a closer look.

It might be a clever marketing strategy, but the election regulators are not amused. Kriangsak said at today’s conference that organizers must remove them immediately and use different designs to avoid confusion.

Samui Bar Owner May Have Found Valuable Sperm Whale Puke

By

Asaree Thaitrakulpanich, Staff Reporter

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27 February 2019, 15:03

Boonyos Tala-upara, left, smiles Wednesday at a lump of what could be ambergris on Koh Samui.

KOH SAMUI — A bar owner said Wednesday that a lump he found on the beach a year ago may be a valuable lump of whale vomit.

Boonyos Tala-upara, owner of Beryl Bar on Koh Samui, believes he may have found a 10-kilogram lump of highly valuable ambergris, and is asking for experts to help him identify the lump.

Ambergris, is a rare excretion of digestive products from sperm whales highly valuable in the perfume industry. However, waxy lumps found in the ocean can also be “fool’s gold,” made of clustered pollution.

The lump Boonyos’s found is 50 centimeters long and has a hard brown outer layer and a softer, waxy yellow inside with a raw smell. Boonyos also compared the lump to a candle, and said the lump was definitely not of the same material. When heated with a direct flame, he said the lump melted and regained its form after cooling.

Boonyos said he found the lump about a year ago on the beach at Ao Kaki and took it home. Eventually some of his friends told him it was whale vomit.

In April 2016, a 1.57 kilogram ambergris ball found in Lancashire, England, sold for GBP50,000, or more than 2 million baht. In November of the same year, three Omani fishermen found 80 kilograms of ambergris and sold it for USD3 million, or more than 94 million baht.

2 Narathiwat Police Shot Dead After Abduction

By

JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI

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27 February 2019, 14:47

Burnt wreckage of a truck used to kidnap two local policemen is seen Wednesday in Narathiwat province.

NARATHIWAT — Two policemen were found shot dead in Narathiwat province early Wednesday after they were abducted by gunmen last night.

Police said they were notified of the abduction at about 7:30pm on Tuesday. Witnesses said nearly 10 armed men dressed as soldiers kidnapped the two officers of Cho-airong police station while they were resting in a local tea shop and drove them away in a truck belonging to one of the officers. Their bodies were found in a roadside ditch past midnight about 200 meters away from where they were last seen.

Both policemen were found with two gunshot wounds to the head and torso, and their hands tied with ropes. Police said a preliminary investigation suggests they were forced out of the car before being shot at close range and dumped at the scene.

Burnt wreckage of the stolen truck was found hours later in the neighboring Tak Bai district which shares the border with Malaysia. Investigators said they were unable to retrieve DNA or fingerprints from the vehicle due to the fire.

Police said three guns including an automatic rifle belonging to the two officers were missing and believed to have been taken by the perpetrators. Authorities suspect they may have fled the country.

Maj. Gen. Dussadee Chusangkij, Narathiwat province police chief, said the attack could be a retaliation for when police shot dead two leaders of an insurgency group Feb. 11 in Chanae district.

Authorities on Wednesday patrol the scene where the bodies of two local police officers were found in Narathiwat province.

Air Force to Detonate WWII Bomb, Advises Public to Stay Away

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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27 February 2019, 13:20

Soldiers at the scene of the bomb discovery Tuesday.

PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN — The military on Wednesday urged commuters to keep out of an abandoned airfield in Prachuap Khiri Khan where a 450-kg bomb was to be destroyed this afternoon.

The bomb, thought to have been dropped by the Allied forces during World War II, was discovered Tuesday close to a railtrack, causing hours of train delays. An air force EOD team estimated the device to have a blast radius of about 1.8 kilometers.

The explosive was moved from where it was found to a disused airfield in Wang Pong subdistrict. It was buried two meter deep to lessen the impact, but the area was nevertheless cordoned off for safety reasons, EOD officer Nawin Wutthiranarit told the media.

The discovery was made by construction crew in Pranburi district who were building a new train track underneath an existing rail bridge, about 500 meters away from Wang Pong Train Station. An excavator hit a metal object while digging, and the crew soon realized it was a large bomb.

“At first I thought it was a bridge pillar, so I picked it up, but my colleagues rushed to tell me it looked like a bomb,” excavator operator Ruangthong Poonriboon told reporters. “I was very shocked … It was lucky the bomb didn’t explode.”

The railway authority immediately halted train travel in the area as a precaution while an EOD team removed the explosive. The team was part of a provincial air force base known for fighting the Japanese army when Japan invaded Thailand in 1941. Rail service resumed at about 8pm Tuesday.

The military said the bomb was one of the explosives dropped by the Allied air force in its campaign against Thailand’s railway after the country joined the war on the Axis side.

Many such explosives remain buried in Thai soil, over 70 years after the war. Officials in Ratchaburi province are struggling to dismantle a cluster of similar bombs found underwater close to a railway bridge there.

The bombs were dropped in 1942 during air raids targeting Chulalongkorn Bridge over the Mae Klong River. The raids destroyed the crossing and killed the Ratchaburi governor at the time.

Prosecutors Mull Indictment Over Future Forward Cybercrime Case

By

JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI

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27 February 2019, 13:08

Future Forward Party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, center, arrives at the Office of the Attorney General Wednesday in Bangkok.

BANGKOK — Prosecutors on Wednesday accepted a cybercrime case against Future Forward Party leader.

Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit and two senior party members went to the Office of the Attorney General today over their online criticism of the junta last year. Prosecutors accepted the case from investigators and scheduled the first hearing for March 26, two days after Election Day.

The office said it would announce that day whether to indict them over the case.

Read: Case Over Future Forward’s Junta Criticism Goes Forward

The three were charged with “spreading false information online” on two separate cases in June involving the livestream video “Return Friday to the People” on the party’s Facebook page and Thanathorn’s criticism written on his own profile.

Thanathorn thanked his supporters and said the party would continue to campaign in an online post.

“Thank you for all of your support. From today on, the Future Forward Party and I will still fully commit to our work. However, I believe what happened won’t be the last obstacle to throw us off our game,” he wrote on Twitter.

The party has also recently been under fire after it was revealed that its website published wrong information under Thanathorn’s profile, saying he was a chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries while he was in fact a chairman of a provincial branch in Nakhon Nayok.

The party spokeswoman said it corrected the profile within hours of being notified, adding that it was an honest mistake. A complaint later filed in early March to the Election Commission over the issue was later dismissed.

Thanathorn once served on the board of Matichon Group, which owns Khaosod English.

Update: This story has been updated with the disposition of a complaint against party leader Thanathorn over his online biography.

Watch Film Starring David Bowie as Brit WWII POW Next Month

By

Chayanit Itthipongmaetee, Staff Reporter

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27 February 2019, 12:52

This image from video shows Ryuichi Sakamoto, left, and David Bowie in “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.” — This image from video shows Ryuichi Sakamoto, left, and David Bowie in 'Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.'

BANGKOK — It’s a chance to see two British and Japanese music icons as enemies on the big screen in March and April.

Cinephiles will get the chance to see the late David Bowie portray a British prisoner of war in a Japanese camp where Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto poses as a commander when “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” screens in Bangkok starting next month.

The screenings will be organized by the Documentary Club.

Based on Laurens van der Post’s experience as a Japanese prisoner of war and directed by Nagisa Oshima, the 1983 British-Japanese film is set during World War II, when the two cultures collided at a Japanese prison camp on Java, Indonesia.

The 120-minute movie – known in many European editions as “Furyo” – stars Bowie and Tom Conti as British military officers. The Japanese are played by Sakamoto and Takeshi Kitano.

Sakamoto won the 1983 BAFTA Award for Best Film Music for the movie’s soundtrack.

It will screen March 21 through April 3 at SF Cinema Central World and from April 4 at alternative cinemas House RCA and Bangkok Screening Room.

Ticket details will be announced at a later date. Central World is reachable via the Skywalk bridge from BTS Siam and BTS Chit Lom.

Dozens Buried by Landslide at Unlicensed Indonesia Gold Mine

By

Associated Press

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27 February 2019, 12:23

A landslide in 2014 in West Java, Indonesia. Photo: Devitapra / Wikimedia Commons

JAKARTA — The collapse of an unlicensed gold mine in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province has buried dozens of people, disaster officials said Wednesday, as emergency personnel struggled to rescue victims in a remote location that’s inaccessible to heavy earth-moving equipment.

Local disaster official Abdul Muin Paputungan said one person is confirmed dead and at least 13 people with injuries ranging from light to serious have been rescued. Dozen could be buried, he said.

“It is estimated that as many as 60 people are buried under landslide and rock material,” he said in a statement released by the national disaster agency.

Makeshift wooden structures in the mine in Bolaang Mongondow district collapsed on Tuesday evening due to unstable soil and the large number of mining holes, burying people in the mine pit.

Informal mining operations are commonplace in Indonesia, providing a tenuous livelihood to thousands who labor in conditions with a high risk of serious injury or death.

Police, search and rescue agency workers, military and Indonesian Red Cross personnel are involved in the rescue effort but the operation is complicated by the remote locale.

Paputungan said the mine and a village connected to it are in a steep area that can only be reached by foot. Earth-moving equipment and ambulances can’t reach the location, he said.

Prachuap Postman Quits After Hoarding Mail for Six Months

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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27 February 2019, 12:16

PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN — The national post service on Wednesday apologized for not delivering letters and packages to homes in Prachuap Khiri Khan province for six months.

The admission came after residents of Bang Saphan Noi district complained online that they had not received any mail. An investigation revealed piles of undelivered mail hoarded at the postman’s home, an official from Thailand Post said today.

Teerapong Thepmanee, in charge of mail service in Prachuap, did not identify the postman in question, but said he quit his job following the discovery.

Read: Use Our Service if You Love Thailand, Much-Loathed State Post Says

The complaints affected residents posted said they missed many important documents such as tax forms and even court warrants. One of them posted online that they had to travel to these agencies by themselves to receive documents.

“I was criticized by my clients. The bank documents went missing. I tried to track them down many times. I complained in many channels but they all went silent,” Santat Detkerd wrote. “In the end, I had to drive 400 or 500 kilometers to get the new documents.”

Teerapong said all hoarded mail will be delivered to the intended recipients.

The news is likely of little surprise for those familiar with Thailand Post’s track record. In December, the state enterprise apologized after one of its mailmen dropped packages at a local grocery store instead of delivering them.

Earlier last year, a woman also complained to the media that boxes of chocolate mailed by her Canadian husband were opened and damaged by Thailand Post staff, who reportedly refused to pay compensation.

Bangkok Thai Post Offices to Add Weekends, Holidays

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