Saudis Blame ‘Fistfight’ For Jamal Khashoggi’s Death

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20 October 2018, 10:45

A dozen of Indonesian journalists hold posters with photos of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi during a protest outside Saudi Arabian Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Oct. 19, 2018. Photo: Achmad Ibrahim / Associated Press

ISTANBUL — Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi died in a “fistfight” in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, the kingdom claimed early Saturday, finally admitting that the writer had been slain at its diplomatic post. Authorities said 18 Saudi suspects were in custody and intelligence officials had been fired.

The overnight announcements in Saudi state media came more than two weeks after Khashoggi, 59, entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul for paperwork required to marry his Turkish fiancée, and never came out. They also contradicted assertions in Turkish media leaks that Khashoggi was tortured, killed and dismembered inside the consulate, claims the kingdom had rejected as “baseless.”

But growing international pressure and comments by U.S. officials up to President Donald Trump forced the kingdom to acknowledge Khashoggi’s death.

While it fired officials close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia stopped short of implicating the heir-apparent of the world’s largest oil exporter. King Salman, his father, appointed him to lead a committee that will restructure the kingdom’s intelligence services after Khashoggi’s slaying. No major decisions in Saudi Arabia are made outside of the ultraconservative kingdom’s ruling Al Saud family.

The kingdom also offered a far different version of events than those given by Turkish officials, who have said an “assassination squad” from the kingdom including an official from Prince Mohammed’s entourage and an “autopsy expert” flew in ahead of time and laid in wait for Khashoggi at the consulate. Beyond its statements attributed to anonymous officials, Saudi Arabia offered no evidence to support its claims.

Khashoggi, a prominent journalist and royal court insider for decades in Saudi Arabia, had written columns for The Washington Post critical of Prince Mohammed and the kingdom’s direction while living in self-imposed exile in the U.S.

“God have mercy on you my love Jamal, and may you rest in Paradise,” Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, tweeted following the Saudi announcements.

In a statement Friday night, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the U.S. will closely follow international investigations into Khashoggi’s death and will advocate for justice that is “timely, transparent and in accordance with all due process.”

Trump meanwhile called the Saudi announcement a “good first step,” but said what happened to Khashoggi was “unacceptable.”

The announcements came in a flurry of statements carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency early Saturday morning.

“Preliminary investigations conducted by the Public Prosecution showed that the suspects had traveled to Istanbul to meet with the citizen Jamal Khashoggi as there were indications of the possibility of his returning back to the country,” the statement read. “Discussions took place with the citizen Jamal Khashoggi during his presence in the consulate of the kingdom in Istanbul by the suspects (that) did not go as required and developed in a negative way, leading to a fistfight. . The brawl led to his death and their attempt to conceal and hide what happened.”

There’s been no indication Khashoggi had any immediate plans to return to the kingdom.

The Saudi statements did not identify the 18 Saudis being held by authorities and did not explain how so many people could have been involved in a fistfight. The statement also did not shed any light on what happened to Khashoggi’s body after his death.

“The kingdom expresses its deep regret at the painful developments that have taken place and stresses the commitment of the authorities in the kingdom to bring the facts to the public opinion, to hold all those involved accountable and bring them to justice,” the statement said.

The kingdom at the same time announced the firing of four top intelligence officials, including Maj. Gen. Ahmed bin Hassan Assiri, a one-time spokesman for the Saudi military’s campaign in Yemen who later became a confidant of Prince Mohammed.

Saud Qahtani, a powerful adviser to Prince Mohammed, also was fired. Qahtani had led Saudi efforts to isolate Qatar amid a boycott of the country by the kingdom and three other Arab nations as part of a political dispute.

On Twitter, where Qahtani had launched vitriolic attacks against those he saw as the kingdom’s enemies, he thanked the Saudi government for the “great opportunity they gave me to serve my country all those years”

“I will remain a loyal servant to my country for all times,” he wrote.

Assiri had no immediate comment.

Earlier this week, the Turkish pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak, citing what it described as an audio recording of Khashoggi’s slaying, said a Saudi assassination squad seized the journalist after he entered the consulate, cutting off his fingers and later decapitating him. On Thursday, a leaked surveillance photo put Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, a member of Prince Mohammed’s entourage on trips to the U.S., France and Spain this year, at the consulate just ahead of Khashoggi’s arrival.

Turkish crime scene investigators this week searched the Saudi Consulate building in Istanbul and the nearby residence of the Saudi consul general, and came out carrying bags and boxes. On Friday, investigators questioned staff and explored whether his remains could have been dumped outside Istanbul after his suspected killing, Turkish media and a security official said.

Trump has said that the consequences for the Saudis “will have to be very severe” if they are found to have killed Khashoggi, but has insisted that more facts must be known before making any judgements. He dispatched U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier this week to both Saudi Arabia and Turkey to speak to officials on the case.

The president has made close ties to the kingdom a priority since taking office. Trump made his first overseas trip as president to Saudi Arabia and has touted his arms sales to the kingdom. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, responsible for a coming peace proposal for Israel and the Palestinians, also has forged a close relationship with Prince Mohammed.

Trump’s previous warnings over the case drew an angry response Sunday from Saudi Arabia and its state-linked media, including a suggestion that Riyadh could wield its oil production as a weapon. The U.S. president wants King Salman and OPEC to boost production to drive down high oil prices, caused in part by the coming re-imposition of oil sanctions on Iran in November.

It’s unclear whether the Saudi announcement will be enough to staunch the criticism the kingdom faces from lawmakers in the U.S., its most-crucial ally. California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, called Saudi Arabia’s claim that Khashoggi was “killed while brawling with a team of more than a dozen dispatched from Saudi Arabia is not credible.”

He was “fighting for his life with people sent to capture or kill him,” Schiff said.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who earlier this week said in a televised interview that Prince Mohammed “has got to go,” added: “To say that I am skeptical of the new Saudi narrative about Mr. Khashoggi is an understatement.”

Human rights groups like Amnesty International separately have been calling for a United Nations investigation into Khashoggi’s killing.

“All along we were concerned about a whitewash, or an investigation by the entity suspected of involvement itself,” Amnesty’s Rawya Rageh said Saturday. “The impartiality of a Saudi investigation would remain in question.”

Story: Suzan Fraser, Sarah El Deeb and Jon Gambrell

Southeast Asian Navies to Hold Drills With China Next Week

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Associated Press

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19 October 2018, 15:43

Defense Ministers from left to right, Brunei's Second Minister, Brunei, Halbi Nin Haji Mohd Yusof, Cambodia's Samdech Pichey Sena Tea Banh, Indonesia's General Ryamizard Ryacudu, Laos' Lieutenant-General Chansamone Chanyalath, Malaysia's Haji Mohamad Bin Sabu, Singapore's Ng Eng Hen, Thai General Prawit Wongsuwan, Myanmar's Lieutenant-General Sein Win, Philippines' Delfin N. Lorenzana, Vietnam's General Ngo Xuan Lich and ASEAN Deputy Secretary General Hoang Anh Tuan during a group photo for the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting on Friday in Singapore. Photo: Don Wong / Associated Press

SINGAPORE — Southeast Asian navies are heading to their first joint exercises with China in its southern waters next week, and defense officials agreed Friday to conduct a similar drill with the U.S. next year.

Singapore’s Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen said the drills in waters surrounding Zhanjiang will build trust and confidence among the navies participating.

The defense ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations said in a joint declaration their planned exercises would “enhance friendship and confidence between ASEAN member states’ navies and the People’s Liberation Army Navy and the U.S. Navy.”

The officials said at a news conference that the location and extent of the second exercise had not been decided.

ASEAN defense ministers are in Singapore with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Wei Feng, for an Asian security conference this weekend.

Mattis said he remains keen for a “constructive relationship” with China but expressed concern about its military activities in the disputed South China Sea.

By working with ASEAN and other partners, the U.S. affirms that “no single nation can rewrite the international rules of the road,” he added.

At an informal meeting, Wei said China and ASEAN were a force for maintaining peace, boosting development and deepening cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. Journalists were ushered out once he started to comment on the South China Sea.

The exercises with China’s navy next week will include operations like maritime safety, medical evacuation, and search and rescue procedures.

Asked if it holding the exercise in the South China Sea was contentious, Ng said all countries had the right of navigation and military activities consistent with international law.

China and other Asian governments have rival claims to parts of the South China Sea. Chinese military activity in the disputed areas is viewed by Washington as irresponsible while Beijing complains of an inappropriate U.S. military presence.

“Having an exercise with one but not the other could be misinterpreted as being partial. As such, the optics are vital,” said Eugene Tan, an associate professor of law at Singapore Management University.

“It’s the attempt at ensuring that both countries and their militaries are engaged with the region,” he added.

Tang Siew Mun, head of the ASEAN Studies Centre at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said more joint activities are likely.

“Strategically, it signals ASEAN’s current and future advances in security cooperation with China will not come at the expense of its good and long-standing ties with the U.S.,” Tang said.

Story: Annabelle Liang

British Woman Held in Malaysia Accused of Killing Husband

By

Associated Press

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19 October 2018, 12:30

An undated photo of a sculpture on Langkawi island, Malaysia. Photo: Max Pixel

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian police said Friday that a British woman has been detained on the resort island of Langkawi for allegedly stabbing her husband to death.

Langkawi police chief Supt. Mohamad Iqbal Ibrahim said investigators found a 12 inch-long kitchen knife stained with blood in the couple’s home where John William Jones, 62, was found dead Thursday. He said police were called to the scene after Samantha Jones, 51, asked her neighbor to call an ambulance but her husband was pronounced dead by medical officers.

He said a stab wound was found on Jones’ chest and police have classified the case as murder.

“She confessed that she stabbed her husband in the chest during a heated argument but this is still under investigation,” Mohamad Iqbal told The Associated Press by phone. She was taken to court, which allowed her held in remand until Tuesday.

He said that John William Jones was a former firefighter who moved with his wife to the tropical island 11 years ago under Malaysia My Second Home program, which gives foreigners long-staying visas.

Murder carries a mandatory death sentence by hanging but Malaysia’s government recently announced plans to abolish the death penalty for all crimes.

Unresolved Mystery – Suicide? Murder? – Returns to Haunt TV

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Asaree Thaitrakulpanich, Staff Reporter

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19 October 2018, 12:00

Nearly a decade after he was acquitted of murder, Noppadol Thammawatthana re-enacts what happened to his brother in the same room of their family home.

BANGKOK — In 1999, Thai Citizens’ Party MP Hangthong Thammawatthana was found in an armchair at his family mansion with a bullet in his head and revolver in his hand.

Chaos erupted; suspicions flew. The Thammawatthana family – Hangthong had more than 10 siblings – had been feuding over its fortune, and some were unhappy he had been funneling it into his political career.

They dragged in top forensic investigators who gave conflicting accounts of what happened. Some ruled it a suicide. Others pointed fingers at a brother, Noppadol Thammawattana, who barely avoided going to jail.

The public pored over crime scene photos and came to their own conclusions.

42500431 334079050494085 4677751428712759296 n — This photo from the scene of Hangthong Thammawatthana’s 1999 death raised many doubts that it could have been a suicide.

Now, the long-standing mystery – “Who killed Hangthong?” – is back in lakorn form, only this time audiences are asking, “Who killed Prasert?”

Last month, a week after the 19th anniversary of Hangthong’s death, the first episode of “In Family We Trust” aired with an all-star cast and gripping opening theme – and unsettling similarities to the Thammawatthana saga.

Viewers saw parallels between the fictional, hotel-owning Jira-anan clan and the Thammawatthanas, who built their fortune in Bangkok’s Ying Charoen market.
Suddenly, public interest in the cold case was revived.

Noppadol, the brother who prosecutors tried and failed to pin the crime on, has even spoken out about becoming public enemy No. 1 after a celebrity forensic examiner all but pinned the crime on him.

“If the court believed Dr. Pornthip [Rojanasunand], I would probably have been executed by now,” he recently told Khaosod. “The truth is the truth, even if society judged me the murderer.”

FAMILY DRAMA OPNE — Promotional image for ‘In Family We Trust.’

Trailer for “In Family We Trust”

Dirty Laundry

In the series, Prasert Jira-anan (Songsit Roongnophakunsri) is, like Hangthong, the scion of an extended Sino-Thai clan found mysteriously dead at home – with his family members the prime suspects.

Whodunit? Was it his younger sister, Passorn (Kathaleeya McIntosh), who was cut from the will? Or had his wife, Cris (Sopitnapa Choompanee), had enough of his affairs? Perhaps Prasert’s other brothers or any number of the four siblings’ children?

“No one hurts us as much as we hurt ourselves,” reads the show’s tagline on a poster of the Jira-anan clan. The Thai name for the series is “Lued Khon, Khon Jang,” literally “Thick Blood, Flimsy Humanity.”

Though not dominating the ratings, the show has found a dedicated urban audience with its fidelity to Sino-Thai family culture, including patriarchal land inheritance and funerary rites.

Audiences have been talking about how women are treated in traditional Chinese families, tabloid media coverage of sensational crimes and whether greed runs thicker than blood.

The 18-episode series, now midway through its run, unfolds in a gripping way that parcels out bits of story in a Rashomon-style, nonlinear narrative of unreliable narrators and contradicting flashbacks that make each episode twist and turn.

At its center is the financially flush but morality-challenged clan ready to avenge slights or compete for the family fortune through the barrel of a gun.

The series’ director denies his show has anything to do with the Thammawatthanas, an understandable position given the way libel laws are written.

image 1 copy — Pete (Kritsanapoom Pibulsonggram) and Cris (Sopitnapa Choompanee).

“Nothing in here is inspired by any real family,” said Songyos Sugmakanan, who is best known for popular teen series “Hormones” and 2003 puppy-love film “Fan Chan.”
“If someone in the Thammawatthana family watched it, they would know it’s not about them. There are similarities, such as the extended family with one of the son-in-laws as a policeman, but the plot isn’t the same.”

For his part, the man nearly convicted of murder in the real case denies even watching it.

“I haven’t had time to watch any lakorn, including this one,” Noppadol told Khaosod. It wasn’t until 2010 that he was acquitted of murdering his brother following a trial.

Jira-anan family members in ‘In Family We Trust’

Ripped from the Headlines

Eight years later, Noppadol, the chairman of Body Glove Thailand, has been pulled back into the limelight by reignited appetites for the grisly saga.

Khaosod went to his same family home where his brother died almost two decades ago. In a four-part interview, Noppadol talked about the family drama over his mother’s inheritance and that fateful night. He even sat for photos in an identical chair from the same furniture set where his brother died.

“That night, he didn’t speak much. He seemed stressed and hungry. I prepared some oranges and snacks for him,” Noppadol said. “He asked what else there was to eat, so I went into another room and made some Nesvita. Then I heard a sound like firecrackers exploding.”

“When I opened the door, I was very shocked,” he said. “P’Hangthong’s blood flowed over the floor. I ran and woke everyone up. I didn’t know he had a gun. And he was my older brother.”

Noppadol today seems as intent on convincing skeptics of his innocence, nearly two decades after his siblings impugned each other through paid experts.

One of his sisters hired a Scottish forensic expert who, along with celebrity examiner Pornthip, suggested it was murder. With the spotlight on him as the prime suspect, Noppadol brought in an American forensic scientist who had helped exonerate O.J. Simpson. He ruled it a suicide.

image 2 copy — A scene in “In Family We Trust” where Prasert is found dead.

“I filed a complaint to the Medical Council, and they took 10 years before ruling that everything Dr. Pornthip said was incorrect. All she got was a warning,” Noppadol said.

He also wrote not one but three books – the “They Say … I Killed P’Hangthong” trilogy – telling his side of the story.

“After all the cases were settled, some of my siblings with a conscience came to me on their knees to apologize. I think we went through enough misery, so I forgave them. But it’s not the same with some others.”

If “In Family We Trust” were indeed a retelling of his family’s tragedy, Noppadol described how he thought it should end this time.

“Whatever chaos happens in the family, in the end, I believe that the law is what will determine what happens. That includes what happens to the will left by the inheritance owner.”

“In Family We Trust” airs in Thai at 8:45pm on Fridays and 8:10pm on Saturdays on One 31 channel and Line TV. Reruns can be watched for free on Line TV and YouTube.

Additional reporting Sunantha Buabmee and Chayanit Itthipongmaetee

<br /> <span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>
Noppadol Thammawatthana talks to Khaosod.

The a living room at the Thammawatthana mansion.

Family portraits at the Thammawatthana mansion.

43250741 1825039290882811 4748206621992157184 n — A poster for ‘In Family We Trust’

Malaysia Ex-Deputy PM Charged With Graft, Money Laundering

By

Associated Press

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19 October 2018, 11:50

United Malays National Organization's (UMNO) Pexresident Ahmad Zahid Hamidi waves as he walks into courtroom Friday at Kuala Lumpur High Court in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo: Yam G-Jun / Associated Press

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia’s former deputy prime minister has been charged with abuse of power, corruption and money laundering involving millions of dollars in another graft investigation against the leaders ousted in shock election results earlier this year.

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi now leads the opposition after his party was ousted in May’s general elections. He was brought to court Friday, a day after he was detained by the anti-graft agency. He pleaded not guilty to eight counts of abusing his power, ten counts of criminal breach of trust and 27 counts of money laundering.

Former Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife also were charged with graft after the elections.

Dozens of supporters from Zahid’s United Malays National Organization rallied outside the court, slamming the charges as politically motivated.

Farangs Face Hard Time For Chiang Mai Vandalism

By

Chayanit Itthipongmaetee, Staff Reporter

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19 October 2018, 11:29

CHIANG MAI — A Briton and Canadian face 10 years in prison and a 1 million baht fine for tagging an ancient, historical wall in Chiang Mai.

British man Lee Furlong and Canadian national Brittney Lorretta Katherine Schneider, both 23, were arrested Thursday afternoon on suspicion of spray-painting a portion of the city’s Tha Phae Gate.

Security camera from a nearby cafe shows four foreigners approaching the site at about 4am on Thursday. Two of them approach the wall and one begins to spray it. Apparently realizing it was misspelled, the vandal returns to fix it to say “Scouser Lee B.”

“Scouser” is British slang for a Liverpool native.

Furlong told police he and the group were drunk and walking back to their guesthouses. Along the way he saw a spray can on the ground so he picked it up and looked for something to paint.

Col. Teerasak Sriprasert, chief of Chiang Mai police, said the two under arrest could be jailed for 10 years and fined 1 million baht. Though what they are accused of amounts to vandalism, he said a heavy penalty must be imposed as they desecrated a historical site highly valued by the public.

Police are looking for the other two foreigners who were at the scene.

Tha Phae Gate dates back to 1296 and the reign of King Mengrai, who founded the Lanna kingdom which later became Chiang Mai. The gate and wall today are modern reproductions erected in 1985 from an old photograph of the gate from 1899.

Exiled Vietnamese Blogger: I’m Not Alone Advocating Freedom

By

Associated Press

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19 October 2018, 10:58

HOUSTON — A prominent blogger freed from prison in Vietnam on condition that she live in exile in the United States says she is glad to be reunited with her family and that she knows she is not alone in advocating for freedom.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh was smiling when she emerged from the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on Wednesday night to be greeted by a crowd, many of them Vietnamese-Americans. Her two young children and her mother travelled with her.

Quynh blogged as “Mother Mushroom” about human rights and industrial pollution. She was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City in 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of defaming Vietnam’s Communist government – a conviction that drew criticism from some governments and human rights groups.

Speaking to reporters upon her arrival, Quynh said that even though she had prepared herself for seeing her family again, she was overwhelmed.

“I was shocked when my son and my daughter hugged me on the plane,” Quynh said. “We had to wait (for this moment) for two years.”

Quynh could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday.

Quynh said she knows she is not alone and that she and others will still speak up for freedom in her native country.

Vietnam has stepped up a crackdown on dissent over the past two years with scores of activists and bloggers jailed for national security-related offenses.

Amnesty International says there are more than 100 “prisoners of conscience” in Vietnam.

The U.S. Embassy welcomed Quynh’s release and said it would continue to press for the release of other “prisoners of conscience.”

“We will continue to call on the government of Vietnam to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience and allow all Vietnamese citizens to express their political views without fear of retribution,” U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Karen Tang said in a statement Thursday.

Quynh was released as U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis visited Vietnam, aiming to boost military cooperation between the two former foes amid growing Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Julia Mason said Thursday that Quynh had previously told U.S. officials she wanted to come to the United States if released from prison.

Quynh’s immigration status in the U.S. was not immediately known.

In an email, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said due to privacy reasons, it can’t comment “on whether or not individuals have applied for immigration benefits or any decisions involved in the adjudication process.”

In a statement, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Quynh plans to live in Houston. The Texas city has the third-largest Vietnamese population in the U.S., according to the Pew Research Center.

“We are greatly pleased that Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh is finally free, but strongly reiterate that she never should have been imprisoned in the first place,” said Shawn Crispin, the committee’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Authorities should follow through on the move by releasing all the other journalists still wrongfully held behind bars in Vietnam.”

Freedom Fighters: Prison Doesn’t Deter Vietnam’s Dissident Bloggers

US Tuna Brand Admits Fixing Prices, Faces $100 Million Fine

By

Associated Press

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19 October 2018, 10:36

Frozen tuna imported from Japan at Ladkrabang Customs near Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand, 29 March 2011. Thai Union Frozen Products, the world's largest canned tuna supplier, said Friday it will buy out US tuna company Bumble Bee Seafoods. EPA/NARONG SANGNAK<br /> — Frozen tuna imported from Japan at Ladkrabang Customs near Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand, 29 March 2011. Thai Union Frozen Products, the world's largest canned tuna supplier, said Friday it will buy out US tuna company Bumble Bee Seafoods. EPA/NARONG SANGNAK

SAN FRANCISCO — StarKist Co. agreed to plead guilty to a felony price fixing charge as part of a broad collusion investigation of the canned tuna industry, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.

The DOJ said StarKist faces up to a USD$100 million fine when it is sentenced. Prosecutors allege that the industry’s top three companies conspired between 2010 and 2013 to keep prices artificially high.

“We have cooperated with the DOJ during the course of its investigation and accept responsibility,” said StarKist chief executive Andrew Choe. “We will continue to conduct our business with the utmost transparency and integrity.”

The scheme came to light when Thai Union Group’s Chicken of the Sea attempt to buy San Diego-based Bumble Bee failed in 2015, according to court records. Chicken of the Sea executives then alerted federal investigators, who agreed to shield the company from criminal prosecution in exchange for cooperation.

Bumble Bee Foods last year pleaded guilty to the same charge and paid a $25 million fine, $111 million lower than prosecutors said it should have been. Prosecutors said they feared putting the financially struggling Bumble Bee out of business with a high fine and agreed to let the company make interest-free payments for five years.

Two former executives of Bumble Bee executives and one from StarKist have also each pleaded guilty to price-fixing charges. None of them have been sentenced.

Former Bumble Bee chief executive Christopher Lischewski has pleaded not guilty to a price fixing charge.

“The conspiracy to fix prices on these household staples had direct effects on the pocketbooks of American consumers,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim.

In addition, the three companies face myriad lawsuits from wholesalers, food service companies and retailers such as Walmart, Target and Kroger.

Immigration Joins Weibo to Regain Chinese Tourists

By

Chayanit Itthipongmaetee, Staff Reporter

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18 October 2018, 14:38

BANGKOK — Immigration police took another step Wednesday to reach out to the country’s largest tourist group.

The immigration police launched an official account on Sina Weibo, the top Chinese social media channel, hoping to regain tourists from the mainland, which dropped for the first time ever this year.

The move is described as part of the junta’s “Thailand 4.0” tech innovation initiative and aims to improve communication with Chinese tourists, according to Maj. Gen. Surachate Hakparn, the newly appointed Immigration Bureau chief.

Via Sina Weibo, Chinese tourists can exchange information and give direct feedback to immigration police.

As of Thursday afternoon, the page had already gained more than 23,000 subscribers.

Ten million Chinese tourists visited Thailand in 2017.

But after nearly 50 Chinese tourists died in July’s Phuket ferry tragedy, more than 660,000 tourists from the mainland canceled trips to the kingdom, amounting to an estimated loss of 37 billion baht.

Tourism officials have vowed to reassure travelers of their safety and regain their No. 1 source of tourism revenue.

Tourism Authority to ‘Win Back Trust’ After Chinese Cancel Trip

Migrants Moving Again in Guatemala, Trump Targets Democrats

By

Associated Press

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18 October 2018, 13:49

A Honduran migrant bound for the U.S. border pushes a baby carriage Wednesday in Zacapa, Guatemala. Photo: Moises Castillo / Associated Press

CHIQUIMULA, Guatemala — More than 2,000 Honduran migrants traveling en masse through Guatemala resumed their journey toward the United States on Wednesday as U.S. President Donald Trump sought to turn the caravan into a political issue three weeks before midterm elections.

A day after warning Central American governments they risk losing U.S. aid if they don’t do something and saying that anyone entering the U.S. illegally would be arrested and deported, Trump turned his sights on Democrats and urged Republican allies to campaign on border security.

“Hard to believe that with thousands of people from South of the Border, walking unimpeded toward our country in the form of large Caravans, that the Democrats won’t approve legislation that will allow laws for the protection of our country. Great Midterm issue for Republicans!” Trump said in a Wednesday morning tweet.

“Republicans must make the horrendous, weak and outdated immigration laws, and the Border, a part of the Midterms!” he continued.

In Guatemala, the migrants rose early and many left without eating breakfast, bound for Zacapa, the next city on their route. Overcast skies and a light drizzle took the edge off the sweltering heat and humidity, making the trek more bearable.

Luis Navarreto, a 32-year-old migrant in the caravan, said he had read about Trump’s threats to his country but was undeterred.

“We are going to continue,” Navarreto said. “It is God who decides here. We have no other option but to move ahead.”

The migrants are fleeing widespread poverty and gangland violence in one of the world’s most murderous countries, and many blame Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez for what they call unlivable conditions back home.

“We are here because of Juan Orlando,” said Nelson Zavala, a 36-year-old laborer.

The previous day the migrants advanced about 30 miles (40 kilometers) from the Honduras-Guatemala border to arrive at the city of Chiquimula.

That is a tiny portion of the almost 1,350 miles (2,200 kilometers) they would have to travel to reach the closest U.S. border.

Some were able to hitch rides, packing the flatbeds of pickups and farm trucks, and even cargo holds of semis, while many more continued on foot with backpacks, strollers and Honduran flags. Hundreds advanced farther and faster than the main group to reach the Guatemalan capital, according to the Casa del Migrante shelter there.

The caravan has snowballed since about 160 migrants departed Friday from the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, with many people joining spontaneously while carrying just a few belongings. Estimates of their numbers ranged up to 3,000.

Three weeks before the U.S. elections, the caravan was bound to draw Trump’s ire. But he did not follow through on a similar threat to cut aid to Honduras in April over an earlier caravan, which eventually petered out in Mexico.

On Tuesday, Honduras’ president accused unnamed “political groups” organizing the caravan based on lies in order to cause problems in Honduras.

“There are sectors that want to destabilize the country, but we will be decisive and we will not allow it,” Hernandez told reporters.

Earlier the Foreign Ministry alleged that people had been lured to join the migration with “false promises” of a transit visa through Mexico and the opportunity to seek asylum in the United States.

In a joint statement Wednesday, Mexico’s Foreign Relations and Interior departments said anyone in the caravan with travel documents and a proper visa will be allowed to enter, and anyone who wants to apply for refugee status can do so.

But the statement said all cases must be processed individually, suggesting that authorities have no intention of letting the migrants simply cross the border en masse without going through standard immigration procedures.

It warned that anyone who enters Mexico in an “irregular manner” faces detention and deportation.

None of the migrants The Associated Press spoke to on the road was carrying a passport. When agents in Guatemala near the Honduran border asked a crowd of them what documentation they were carrying, they held up national personal ID cards, which allow them to move through most countries in Central America – but not Mexico, which requires foreigners to present a passport for entry.

Late Tuesday, Trump said via Twitter that Washington had told Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador that the U.S. will stop aid “if they allow their citizens, or others, to journey through their borders and up to the United States, with the intention of entering our country illegally.”

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales said Wednesday that he had spoken twice with U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence.

As for Guatemala’s government, Morales said, “We do not accept conditions; we do not impose conditions. What we do is accept our responsibilities and we are going to prioritize what our laws say.”

He added that he had also discussed with Honduras’ Hernandez the facilitation of “the most comfortable, feasible and humane return possible for any who wish to go back.”

Morales said that while Central Americans are legally free to transit from country to country, a “massive ingress of people without registering” puts Guatemala in a difficult position because it’s impossible to know who the people are and what may be the intentions of any of their leaders.

Luis Arreaga, the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala, posted a video message on Twitter to migrants thinking of entering the United States illegally.

“If you try to enter the United States, you will be detained and deported,” Arreaga said in Spanish. Addressing those already en route, he added: “Return to your country. Your attempt to migrate will fail.”

Also Wednesday, some 300 Hondurans arrived at the El Salvador border hoping to make it to join the caravan in Guatemala.

A Salvadoran government statement and the country’s migration director, Herbert Hernandez, said about 100 of the Hondurans tried to enter “without going through the obligatory migration control” and soldiers and police took control of a border bridge between the two countries.

Some from the group went through the standard migration processing and were allowed to enter El Salvador. Others who refused were partially impeding the crossing.

“Transit at the El Amatillo border is blocked by these people, not by … the government,” Hernandez said.

Story: Sonia Perez D.

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