Thai Woman Beaten to Death in Tokyo: Japanese Media

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20 December 2018, 12:33

A still image from Japanese media taken outside a hotel in Tokyo where a Thai woman was reportedly found unconscious with serious injuries in a hotel room. She later died. Image: Tokyo MX News / YouTube

BANGKOK — A 19-year-old Thai woman died yesterday in Tokyo, the Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed Thursday, after Japanese media said she was severely beaten in a hotel.

The woman, who hasn’t been identified, died Wednesday night at a hospital, according to ministry spokeswoman Busadee Santipitaks, citing the Thai Embassy in Tokyo. She said the woman’s family has been notified but released no further details except to say full autopsy results were expected from Japanese authorities.

Several Japanese media outlets yesterday reported that a young Thai woman had been seriously assaulted Tuesday night in a fifth-floor hotel room in suburban Tokyo. They said she was found unconscious with bruises all over her face and body, and that a 20-year-old Japanese man was found lying on the sidewalk below the room with head injuries.

According to the local reports, a hotel employee called police after hearing a woman’s screams from a room following a heated argument with a man. Police said that when they knocked on the room’s door, they heard a man shouting for them to wait. When they decided to go in, they found only the woman lying naked as the man had apparently jumped from the window.

The man was reportedly being treated at a hospital. Thai authorities said the woman was there as a tourist.

In Reversal, Foreign Poll Monitors May Be Allowed For February Vote

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Pravit Rojanaphruk, Senior Staff Writer

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20 December 2018, 12:08

Former minister Suwat Liptapanlop, at left, campaigns for the Chart Pattana Party this past Saturday in Korat.

BANGKOK — Thailand’s top election official said they are prepared to invite foreign observers in to monitor the February poll.

The announcement Wednesday by Election Commission chairman Ittiporn Boonpracong came after a growing chorus of calls by politicians and activists for professional international observers to ensure the vote is free and fair. Ittiporn noted that previous election commissioners have allowed foreign observers in since 2003 and said his colleagues on the commission agreed it was allowable in principle.

Nothing is final at this point and many others remain opposed to allowing monitors in, such as Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai, who said he opposes the deployment of foreign monitors. Also Wednesday, junta deputy leader Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan, who is also a deputy prime minister, expressed opposition to the idea.

Read: Regime Fears Embarrassment by Foreign Poll Monitors: Veteran Thai Observer

“On this matter, doesn’t Thailand have any related organizations, so we must have foreigners? … Elections in other countries do not allow, do not have foreign organizations observing,” Prawit said, despite poll external monitors being standard to credible elections worldwide.

Ittiporn pointed out that the European Union has yet to formally request its involvement. Representatives of the EU delegation have repeatedly said they need a formal invitation to do so.

The last time Thais went to the polls, for the 2017 constitutional referendum, no monitors were allowed, even those from domestic organizations.

Pongsak Chanon, who coordinates for the Asian Network for Free Elections in Thailand, said they were still awaiting confirmation from the commission as of Thursday morning that their request to field at least 70 Asian observers will be granted.

With a 50KG Beaut, Tak Farmer Gives Folks Pumpkin to Talk About

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Asaree Thaitrakulpanich, Staff Reporter

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20 December 2018, 11:46

Panadda Nakorn, in hat at right, shows off the 50-kilogram pumpkin Wednesday she hopes will win the local ag fair in Tak province.

TAK — A young farmer bowled over her neighbors with a Cinderella-worthy entry into a local harvest festival Wednesday.

Panadda Nakorn, 26, wowed local growers with a boulder-like, 50-kilogram pumpkin grown in the soil of her Km. 48 Tomato Farm in the Phop Phra district of Tak province. Now, she’s taking it on the road to the Phop Phra Agricultural and Red Cross Fair, where she will enter it into competition.

“This is an American breed of pumpkin that we have been trying to adapt to Phop Phra’s climate,” Panadda said. “It’s still kind of unstable.”

Panadda said the pumpkin took 90 days to grow and that since they were still trying to adjust the breed to Tak climate for two years, it doesn’t taste exceptionally sweet or rich when grown here.

Starting Friday, the public can get a gander at the giant pumpkin at the fair, which runs through Tuesday at the Phra Buddha Maharaj Kittichaloem monument.

No Bail For Saraburi Teens Accused of Raping 12-Year-Old

By

JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI

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20 December 2018, 11:21

Police talk to people Wednesday outside a shop in Saraburi province where five teen boys are accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.

SARABURI — A police spokesman on Thursday said five teen boys accused of gang-raping a 12-year-old girl in Saraburi province are being held in detention while an investigation is underway.

Col. Kritsana Pattanacharoen said investigators are now waiting for the full results of the victim’s physical examination, while the accused – all minors – have been charged and will undergo further questioning under the supervision of child protection agents.

The case blew up Tuesday after a top local official was caught on tape disparaging the young accuser publicly and pressuring her to drop the matter. Local administration president Sangwan Sitthipanya was forced to resign under pressure.

Read: ‘Kind of a Slut,’ Saraburi Official Calls Girl, 12, Alleging Gang Rape

Saraburi City police said yesterday that the provincial juvenile court had denied the teens bail and ordered them held at a local juvenile facility.

Kritsana promised justice in both the gang-rape case and a count of assault against the girl’s father, who allegedly beat up some of the accused teens and their parents in anger.

Tawatchai Thaikyo, a deputy permanent secretary in the Justice Ministry, said Wednesday that local prosecutors have informed the victim’s family of their legal rights. He said the ministry and other related government agencies would provide full support to the girl, including possible relocation and mental health care.

One Championship Sets Mighty Mouse, Alvarez Debuts for Japan

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Associated Press

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20 December 2018, 11:03

Singapore's Christian Lee lets out a yell following his featherweight win over China's Wan Jian Ping in ONE Championship mixed martial arts bout in Pasay city on April 21, 2017.

LOS ANGELES — Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez will make their One Championship debuts at the mixed martial arts promotion’s first show in Japan on March 31.

One Championship on Wednesday revealed several bout matchups to The Associated Press for its landmark event in Tokyo.

The show at the Ryogoku Kokugikan arena will feature atomweight champion Angela Lee’s move up to challenge One strawweight champion Xiong Jing Nan. Middleweight champion Aung La N Sang and lightweight champ Eduard Folayang also will defend their belts against Japanese challengers.

Johnson and Alvarez are two former UFC champions who moved to the Singapore-based One Championship earlier this year.

Johnson, the long-reigning UFC flyweight champion better known as “Mighty Mouse,” will take on Japanese flyweight Yuya “Little Piranha” Wakamatsu in his first bout for One.

Johnson had won 13 consecutive bouts and had the longest title reign in UFC history before he surrendered his 125-pound title in a split-decision loss to Henry Cejudo in August. Johnson then moved to One Championship in October in an effective trade between the promotions, with the UFC getting welterweight Ben Askren from One in the deal.

Alvarez, the former UFC and Bellator lightweight champion, will fight Russian lightweight contender Timofey Nastyukhin in his One debut.

The well-traveled Alvarez held the UFC 155-pound title in 2016 before losing it to Conor McGregor. Alvarez is from Philadelphia, but fought in Japan several times in his early career.

One has bolstered its roster with notable U.S.-based talent ahead of a North American television deal with Turner Sports beginning in January. Along with Johnson and Alvarez, the promotion also has signed Sage Northcutt, the 22-year-old Texas lightweight promoted as a major future star by the UFC.

Lee (9-0), a Canadian-born Singaporean who grew up in Hawaii, is among One Championship’s most popular fighters and its 105-pound champion since mid-2016. She will move up 10 pounds to challenge Xiong (13-1) in a superfight initially planned for November before Lee had to drop out with a back injury.

Aung La N Sang, from Myanmar, will defend his belt against Japan’s Ken Hasegawa in a rematch of their memorable five-round bout in June.

Folayang, from the Philippines, will face Japan’s Shinya Aoki in another rematch. Folayang stopped Aoki in the third round in November 2016.

Tickets for the show will go on sale Thursday in Japan. The event also will feature the beginning of One’s flyweight grand prix tournament, but those matchups will be announced later.

One has staged shows across Asia from Myanmar to China over the past seven years, but waited to take its shot at the martial arts-loving fan base in Japan, where several major MMA organizations have risen and fallen over the years. One also plans to debut in Vietnam and South Korea later in 2019.

Story: Greg Beacham

Banksy’s New Work in Wales: A Comment on Air Pollution?

By

Associated Press

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20 December 2018, 11:02

A mural by street artist and social commentator Banksy seen Wednesday on a garage in Port Talbot, Wales. Photo: @RHoneyJones /Twitter

LONDON — Street artist and social commentator Banksy has apparently popped up in Wales, leaving a new artwork on a garage in Port Talbot that references the town’s air pollution.

A video posted to his official Instagram account on Wednesday afternoon had close-ups of the piece.

With the children’s song “Little Snowflake” as a soundtrack, the video shows images painted on two garage walls that form a right angle. On one side, a child appears to be playing in the falling snow, sticking his tongue out for snowflakes. The other side reveals that the “snow” is actually falling ash and smoke from a fire in a dumpster.

The video then pans up to show the nearby Tata Steel plant, which looms over the Welsh town.

“They’ve not dropped a Banksy on us, have they?” a man asks on the video, which is captioned: “Season’s greetings.”

Rachel Honey-Jones, 33, who lives the other side of Swansea Bay, said an artist friend of hers was tipped off about the artwork’s location and stayed overnight to guard it.

“It’s amazing, an incredible addition to Port Talbot,” Honey-Jones said.

Absolutely stoked to have seen #Banksy with my own two eyes in Taibach, Port Talbot. Standing afar from it and you can see the steelworks in the background.… pic.twitter.com/w8A6eDhxOi

— Rachel Honey-Jones (@RHoneyJones) December 19, 2018

The owner of the garage, Ian Lewis, 55, a steelworker for Tata Steel, said he first saw the piece when images spread on Facebook on Tuesday evening. He said Port Talbot was probably chosen for the Banksy work due to news headlines about the town’s air pollution.

In May, the World Health Organization apologized after it admitted that figures identifying Port Talbot as the most polluted town in the U.K. were wrong. It said Port Talbot’s air pollution actually measured 9.6853 micrograms, just under half the figure it originally gave the town and below the World Health Organization guideline of 10 micrograms.

Still, black dust from the town’s steelworks covered houses, cars and pets in July, a possible inspiration for the artwork.

Council workers erected metal fencing around the garage on Wednesday to protect the artwork.

“People have already taken sledgehammers to it and tried to throw paint on it,” said Honey-Jones. “It will bring visitors and trade and tourism to the county, so it really does need to be protected.”

Singapore Bans Former Goldman Sachs Exec with 1MDB Links

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Associated Press

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20 December 2018, 10:55

SINGAPORE — Singapore regulators placed a lifetime ban Wednesday on a former Goldman Sachs banker who faces criminal charges in the United States and Malaysia for ransacking the 1MDB state investment fund.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore, or MAS, said it decided to lengthen its 10-year ban against Tim Leissner after he pleaded guilty to charges levied by the Justice Department in November. Leissner admitted to money laundering conspiracy and conspiring to violate foreign bribery laws in connection with 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

“The U.S. DOJ’s charges and Mr. Leissner’s guilty plea have provided further evidence of Mr. Leissner’s involvement in fund flows related to 1MDB, which were previously not available to MAS,” the authority said.

“The latest actions against Mr. Leissner arose from the close cooperation and continuing investigations by law enforcement and regulatory authorities in the U.S., Singapore and other countries,” it added.

The ban covers banking and business functions and the managing of capital markets services firms. It also prevents Leissner from being a director, substantial shareholder, capital markets services licensee or exempt person for Singapore businesses dealing with securities, futures and funds management.

Leissner, who led Goldman Sachs’ Singapore branch, managed three 1MDB bond issuances from 2012 to 2013. MAS said he issued an unauthorized reference letter to a financial institution in Luxembourg, and falsely claimed the bank had conducted due diligence on fugitive Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low.

Low, the named mastermind of a scheme that pilfered billions of dollars from the state-owned fund, remains at large. He allegedly used the money for bribes and kickbacks to foreign officials, to pay for luxury real estate, art and jewelry and to help finance Hollywood movies including “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

U.S. and Malaysian authorities have charged Low in absentia, Leissner and another former Goldman Sachs executive, Roger Ng Chong Hwa.

Singapore, which commenced 1MDB investigations in 2015, has shuttered two Swiss banks and fined others, including DBS Bank, UBS and Standard Chartered Bank for 1MDB-related lapses.

It has jailed, fined and imposed bans on several executives. In October, a Singapore court ordered the return of 15.3 million Singapore dollars ($11.1 million) linked to the indebted fund.

“I think that the fines so far from Singapore have been relatively minimal, focused on a few facilitators rather than instigators, and have yet to go to the real serious issues of money laundering and kleptocracy,” said Bridget Welsh, an associate political science professor at the John Cabot University in Rome.

“We will only get a better sense of the facets of 1MDB when the trials start. Exposure of the problem opens Singapore to greater scrutiny,” she said.

Story: Annabelle Liang

Facebook Purges More Myanmar Accounts for Misrepresentation

By

Associated Press

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20 December 2018, 10:19

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks in a April 12, 2016, file photo at an event in San Francisco. Photo: Eric Risberg / Associated Press

BANGKOK — Facebook has announced its third and biggest purge of military-linked accounts in Myanmar, where critics have charged that the social network did too little to block inflammatory material that fueled communal hatred and violence, particularly against the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority.

The social media giant said in a statement Wednesday that it had removed 425 Facebook pages, 17 groups and 135 accounts in Myanmar for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” meaning they misrepresented who was running the provocative accounts. It also removed 15 Instagram accounts.

Some 700,000 Rohingya fled their homes in western Myanmar since last year in response to a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by the military, which has been accused of massive human rights violations. Rights activists and U.N. investigators have charged that the military in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar was carrying out a policy of ethnic cleansing, or even genocide.

“As part of our ongoing investigations into this type of behavior in Myanmar, we discovered that these seemingly independent news, entertainment, beauty and lifestyle Pages were linked to the Myanmar military, and to the Pages we removed for coordinated inauthentic behavior in Myanmar in August,” said Facebook’s statement. “This kind of behavior is not allowed on Facebook under our misrepresentation policy because we don’t want people or organizations creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they are, or what they’re doing.”

In its initial action in August to fight the problem, Facebook said it had banned Myanmar’s powerful military chief and 19 other individuals and organizations in order to “prevent the spread of hate and misinformation.”

Last month, Facebook admitted that it didn’t do enough to prevent its services from being used to incite violence and spread hate in Myanmar.

It was reacting to a report it commissioned from the nonprofit group Business for Social Responsibility, which said that “A minority of users is seeking to use Facebook as a platform to undermine democracy and incite offline violence, including serious crimes under international law.”

Musician Accused of Covering Up Girlfriend’s Murder

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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19 December 2018, 18:08

A photo of Suphanee Sinanantrakul on her Facebook

BANGKOK — Police said Wednesday they have summoned a singer for further questioning over suspicions that he killed his girlfriend and covered it up as an accident.

Suphanee Sinanantrakul, 27, was found dead by rescue workers in the bathroom of Pongpetch Sinsuwan’s home Saturday after they responded to a fire there. A local police chief said Pongpetch had ignored a previous summons by the police, so they will as a court to issue a warrant for him to appear.

Khu Khot Police Station chief Samitti Sarod also told reporters that investigators are questioning other witnesses but declined to disclose further details citing the ongoing investigation.

Pongpetch, or Ball Bangkaew, has denied any wrongdoing. He told the media a fire started at a shrine on the second floor while Suphanee was showering in a nearby bathroom, trapping her. Pongpetch, his sister and mother managed to flee unharmed.

The singer said he tried to save Suphanee but could not reach her because of the fire, a claim his sister Pongchomphu Sinsuwan repeated.

“My brother tried to go in there three times,” Pongchomphu told reporters, adding that her house had experienced occasional electrical problems since the 2011 floods.

A formal autopsy was yet to be released, but Suphanee’s father Banyat Sinanantrakul told the media he believes she was killed by Pongpetch. He filed a complaint to police Sunday, urging them to investigate.

Banyat also alleged that Pongpetch had a history of physical violence against his daughter.

“I’m confident she was murdered,” he said. “My daughter’s boyfriend is a violent man. She complained to me many times … I already told him not to date that man. But my daughter loves him.”

Pongpetch and his twin brother are members of rock-pop band Bangkaew, which rose to fame in the early 2000s. Their latest album was released in 2012.

‘Kind of a Slut,’ Saraburi Official Calls Girl, 12, Alleging Gang Rape

By

JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI

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19 December 2018, 17:18

Police on Wednesday investigate a shop in Saraburi province where a 12-year-old girl was alleged to be gang-raped.

SARABURI — A government official in Saraburi province resigned Wednesday after footage emerged of him trying to convince a 12-year-old girl into saying she was not gang-raped.

Sangwan Sitthipanya, a top local administrator, was pressured into resigning following the release of the clip one day after the victim’s father accused him of discouraging him from reporting the alleged assault of his daughter by five teen boys.

“Tell me honestly what they did to you. Did you orgasm?” a man can be heard telling the girl in the clip posted online. “Let’s talk first about what we should do. She’s kind of a slut.”

Update: No Bail For Saraburi Teens Accused of Raping 12-Year-Old

Sirichai Pratoomma, the deputy district chief, today identified Sangwan as the man in the video. He said the administration wanted his immediate resignation because he damaged its reputation. Sangwan reportedly resigned hours later.

The father of the girl went public about the story yesterday, claiming that Sangwan was related to one of the accused.

In an online post, he said he was in Bangkok on Sunday when he was informed by a friend that his daughter was assaulted at a local grocery shop. He also admitted to taking violent action against the teens and their parents in response, saying the police set the boys free while charging him with causing bodily harm.

The father said today that another girl was also assaulted along with his daughter.

Lt. Col. Monchai Roongrueangset of the Saraburi City police said Tuesday they would pursue both cases. He said they had to wait for child protection experts before interrogating the five teens – all minors – accused of raping the girl.

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