Mexico’s President-Elect Stuck Aboard Delayed Flight (Video)

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21 September 2018, 13:47

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s austerity-minded president-elect has vowed to sell the presidential jet and fly commercial. And he even appears prepared to suffer the plight of average travelers: being trapped on delayed flights.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was stuck for at least three hours after his flight from the Huatulco airport in southern Mexico was delayed by air traffic and weather.

Passengers posted videos Thursday of Lopez Obrador speaking from his seat on the plane bound for Mexico City.

Lopez Obrador says the experience won’t make him change his mind.

He said, “I am not going to get on the presidential airplane. I would be ashamed … to have a luxury airplane in a country with so much poverty.”

Lopez Obrador also won’t accept Secret Service-style bodyguards.

Japanese Soundsmith ‘Cornelius’ Coming to Bangkok

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Chayanit Itthipongmaetee, Staff Reporter

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21 September 2018, 13:30

BANGKOK — Nicknamed the “Japanese Beck” or “modern day Brian Wilson,” a Tokyo producer is bringing his talent for kaleidoscopic music to the city this November.

Japanese studio wizard Keigo Oyamada, whose nom de guerre is Cornelius, will perform live in Bangkok to promote his sixth album “Mellow Waves,” local promoter Have You Heard announced Friday morning.

The concert will start at 8:30pm on Nov. 7 at Voice Space. The event hall of Voice TV is located on Vibhavadi-Rangsit Road. Tickets range from 1,900 baht to 2,200 baht and go on sale online Oct. 1.

This marks the fourth time the 49-year-old multi-instrumentalist will play at the capital. His previous visit was in 2013, when he curated an art and music event called Japanese Invention.

After his original band Flipper’s Guitar dissolved, Oyamada named his alter-ego Cornelius after the righteous male chimpanzee from “Planet of the Apes.” His explosive third studio album earned him a comparison to American producer and multi-instrumentalist Beck.

Apart from producing for Yoko Ono, Cornelius’ prominent works include remixes of Beck, Beastie Boys and MGMT. He also composed the music for action comedy “Scott Pilgrim vs The World” and anime series “Ghost in the Shell: Arise.”

Suge Knight Pleads to Manslaughter Over Fatal Confrontation

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Associated Press

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21 September 2018, 13:23

LOS ANGELES — Averting a murder trial that had been nearly four years in coming, former rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight pleaded no contest Thursday to voluntary manslaughter for running over and killing a Compton businessman and agreed to serve nearly 30 years in prison.

The Death Row Records co-founder entered the plea in Los Angeles Superior Court after striking a deal with prosecutors, and has agreed to serve 28 years. Jury selection for his trial, which could have led to a life sentence, had been scheduled to begin Monday.

Knight was charged with murder, attempted murder and hit-and-run after fleeing the scene of a dispute in January 2015 outside a Compton burger stand. Knight and Cle “Bone” Sloan, a consultant on the N.W.A. biopic “Straight Outta Compton,” traded punches before Knight clipping him with his pickup truck and ran over businessman Terry Carter, who died from his injuries.

Knight’s attorneys have said he was acting in self-defense and was fleeing armed attackers when he ran over Carter and Sloan. Sloan has denied he was carrying a gun during the confrontation.

During Thursday’s hearing, Knight, wearing orange jail attire with his arms and legs in chains, answered Judge Ronald Coen’s questions, loudly and quickly saying “no contest” when the judge asked for his plea. He will be formally sentenced on Oct. 4.

The plea deal calls for Knight to serve 22 years in prison on the voluntary manslaughter count, and another six years because it is a third strike violation.

Knight disagreed with the judge’s description of one of his previous strikes and put a pause in the proceedings that briefly raised tension in the courtroom.

“You served nine years for it,” Coen said, before Knight agreed to move on.

Carter’s daughter, Crystal, sat in the front row of the courtroom and displayed no visible reaction to the proceedings. “I’m surprised he pleaded out,” Crystal Carter said outside court. “Normally he likes the cameras to be on him 24-7.”

The agreement also absolves Knight in two other cases, both from 2014. He was accused of stealing a camera from a woman and of sending threatening text messages to “Straight Outta Compton” director F. Gary Gray.

Delays, detours and drama marked the run-up to Knight’s trial, which was expected to begin Oct. 1 under tight security and secrecy. Court officials had said that no witness list would be released ahead of the trial, and that some witnesses might not be identified by name during the case.

Surveillance video that showed Knight hitting the two men with his truck was likely to play a central role for both sides.

Sloan, who had feuded with Knight for years in a dispute with roots in their Compton gang ties, was likely to have been the trial’s key witness, but may have been a difficult one for the prosecution.

Despite giving a detailed account of the incident to police on the day it happened, just a few months later at a preliminary hearing he claimed to have little memory of it, and even refused at first to identify Knight as the person sitting in the courtroom who he’d fought with.

Knight collapsed during one court hearing, two of his former attorneys were indicted on witness-tampering charges, and his fiancee pleaded no contest to selling video of Knight hitting the two men with his truck.

His attorney Albert DeBlanc Jr., appointed by the court five months ago, was his 16th, and Knight tried to fire him and get yet another lawyer just a day before the deal was reached.

Knight would frequently, against the advice of Coen and his attorneys, speak extensively during hearings, complaining about jail conditions, his attorneys and his health issues.

On Thursday, while Coen read legal language about the plea and told Knight he was subject to deportation if he was not a citizen, Knight said “ICE is coming to get me?” to a smattering of laughs.

DeBlanc declined comment on the plea agreement. Prosecutors did not speak to reporters outside court.

The 53-year-old was a key player in the gangster rap scene that flourished in the 1990s, and his label once listed Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg among its artists. Knight lost control of the company after it was forced into bankruptcy. He has prior felony convictions for armed robbery and assault with a gun. He pleaded no contest in 1995 and was sentenced to five years’ probation for assaulting two rap entertainers at a Hollywood recording studio in 1992.

He was sentenced in February 1997 to prison for violating terms of that probation by taking part in a fight at a Las Vegas hotel hours before Shakur was fatally wounded in a drive-by attack as he rode in Knight’s car just east of the Las Vegas Strip. Shakur’s slaying remains unsolved.

Story: Andrew Dalton

Study of Puzzling Fossils Confirms They Came From an Animal

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Associated Press

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21 September 2018, 13:14

This undated photo provided by Ilya Bobrovskiy in September 2018 shows a fragment from a Dickinsonia fossil. Photo: Ilya Bobrovskiy / Associated Press

NEW YORK — Scientists say they’ve confirmed that puzzling fossils from more than 500 million years ago are traces of an animal.

That would make it one of the earliest known creatures.

The fossils are impressions in rock: oval shapes with internal lines, looking somewhat like a leaf imprint densely packed with veins. First described in 1947, they are found in Australia and Russia and range in size from a fingernail to some 4 ½ feet (1.22 meters) long.

The mysterious organism that made them has been dubbed “Dickinsonia.” But what was it?

In the past, scientists have suggested it’s an animal, lichen or a huge example of a single-celled organism called protists.

In a paper released Thursday by the journal Science, researchers present evidence for its being an animal. The key evidence was finding that Dickinsonia fossils from Russia contained carbon-bearing substances produced by animals.

Experts not connected to the study said that evidence is strong, and that most scientists who had studied the matter already believed that Dickinsonia was probably an animal. “This gives us confidence in that assessment,” said Douglas Erwin of the Smithsonian Institution.

It’s not clear when Dickinsonia lived, but well-dated fossils are 558 million years old, said Jochen Brocks of the Australian National University in Canberra, a study author. Whether they’re the oldest known animal fossils is a tricky question, because some older rock features have also been interpreted by some researchers as fossils of animals, he said.

He considers Dickinsonia “the very oldest animal that we can be sure about,” but added that it edges out another widely accepted animal fossil by only about 2 million years.

As for what Dickinsonia looked like, “we have no clue,” Brocks wrote in an email.

“We do know it was soft and flexible,” he said. “Maybe like a slug, but less watery than a jellyfish.”

Dickinsonia was evidently far from the first animal on Earth. Analysis of DNA of living animals suggests animals appeared more than 720 million years ago, although fossil evidence that old is lacking.

Fossils of land plants go back to between 444 million and 486 million years, while those of bacteria extend to at least 3.5 billion years.

Vietnamese President Quang Dies of Illness

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Associated Press

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21 September 2018, 12:25

Vietnam's President Tran Dai Quang meets Sept. 13 with Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the Presidential Palace during the World Economic Forum on ASEAN in Hanoi,Photo: Kham / via AP

HANOI — Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang has died. He was 61.

The official Vietnam News Agency says Quang died at the 108 Military Hospital in Hanoi on Friday due to a serious illness. It did not elaborate.

Quang hosted President Donald Trump during his first state visit to the communist country last year.

His last public appearance was at a Politburo meeting of the ruling Communist Party and a reception for a Chinese delegation on Wednesday.

Quang did not appear in public for more than a month last year, raising speculation about his health.

A career security officer, Quang was elected president in April 2016.

Sensitive Cop Talks Down Suicidal Chonburi Teen

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Asaree Thaitrakulpanich, Staff Reporter

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21 September 2018, 12:19

42154468_854148781642266_694512347955331072_n — Police Capt. Nuttawut Na Chiang Mai talks to a suicidal teenage girl Thursday in Chonburi City. Photo: Sawas Ponchaiyapoom

CHONBURI — A cop who talked down a suicidal teenage girl said all he had to do was be a good listener.

Capt. Nuttawut Na Chiang Mai of Chonburi City police talked a 14-year-old from a pedestrian bridge Thursday, an act that went on to be widely praised for his display of sensitivity.

“I didn’t do much of the talking. Mostly I listened to her talk,” Nuttawut said in an exclusive interview Friday. “At first she didn’t respond to me at all, but she slowly started to open up about her problems. She wanted to tell me.”

To calm her down, Nuttawut said he gave her a bit of advice as well.

“I taught her that she’s still very young, and that she’s still got a lot of people to meet, and a lot more of society to see,” Nuttawut said.

Nuttawut said the girl was depressed because her parents were always fighting, she had been fighting with friends, and her teacher had yelled at her.

Nuttawut’s deed was widely shared online in a post that was liked more than 26,000 times and shared more than 20,000 times since last night.

Many left comments blaming the girl’s parents and praising Nuttawut for improving the image of a police force tainted by a reputation for being lazy and venal.

At least one person identified with the troubled girl.

“I used to be in that situation as well,” user Maimeearai Paisoogubkao wrote. “Thanks to all the good cops in society. I hope and pray that we have only honorable cops who act like real men and truly protect citizens.”

Northern Line Blocked by Derailed Freight Train

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JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI

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21 September 2018, 11:56

PHRAE — Passengers in the north were stranded overnight after a freight train derailed, blocking the northern rail line.

State Railway workers Friday morning removed the freight train after its locomotive left the tracks in the Long district of Phrae at about 6:40pm last night, stranding about 500 passengers at the Lampang City station. The train was heading to Lampang’s Mae Mo district. The railway said full service should be restored by noon.

The accident shut down the whole northern line. Bangkok-bound trains were stopped at Lampang City station, while those going to Chiang Mai were forced to wait at the Sila At station in Uttaradit or the Den Chai station in Phrae.

It was unclear how many passengers were affected. The State Railway’s acting governor Voravuth Mala could not immediately be reached for comment.

Voravuth said in July that there are about 80,000 train passengers daily, both Thai and foreigners.

Tassayan Payakmin, chief of Lampang City station, said yesterday that affected passengers could get a full refund for their tickets. They could also continue their journeys by bus via free shuttles to be provided.

On Friday morning, the authorities sent shuttle buses to ferry stranded passengers between Lampang to Sila At and Den Chai, where special trains would take them to their intended destinations north or south.

Indonesia Imposes Moratorium on New Palm Oil Plantations

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Associated Press

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21 September 2018, 11:53

In this Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012 photo, a man pushes his motorbike at a palm oil plantation in Nagan Raya, Aceh province, Indonesia. Photo: Dita Alangkara / Associated Press

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s president has signed a moratorium on new palm oil development and ordered a review of existing plantations, an official said Thursday, in a blow to an industry blamed for environmental destruction and worker exploitation.

Prabianto Mukti Wibowo, a deputy minister at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, said the moratorium, first announced by president Joko Widodo after devastating fires in 2015, will last three years.

He told The Associated Press it’s needed because many planned plantations are inside natural forests and also to clarify the legal rights of villagers and smallholders.

Palm oil, mainly produced in Malaysia and Indonesia, is used in a vast number of products globally from cosmetics to snacks and is a big export earner for both countries, though most of the profits go to a few conglomerates.

“In this presidential instruction, all central and provincial governments, including governors, mayors and district chiefs were ordered to re-evaluate permits,” Wibowo said. “It also instructs (them) to delay the opening of new palm oil plantations to reduce conflict.”

The palm oil industry is the target of a worldwide campaign by conservationists and human rights groups, who are pressuring consumer brands to drop producers involved in deforestation and rights abuses.

Clearance of rainforest for palm oil and pulp wood plantations is also behind a slide in the population of critically endangered orangutans, a great ape found only in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Amid a backlash against palm oil producers, the European Union has been considering a ban on the use of palm oil in biofuels.

But the influential International Union for Conservation of Nature earlier this year said bans are not a solution because other sources of plant oil require as much as nine times more land.

It said a ban would likely only displace forest and species destruction to other areas. Concerted action is needed to make the palm oil a responsible and sustainable industry, it said.

Hua Hin Beach Gets 1st Shark Net in Thailand

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Chayanit Itthipongmaetee, Staff Reporter

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21 September 2018, 11:50

HUA HIN — Tourists can now swim without being paranoid about unexpected marine carnivores.

Five months after a shark bit a man at a usually quiet stretch of sand in Hua Hin, the installation of buoys to keep the creatures away was completed Thursday on Sai Noi Beach.

Read: Shark Attack! Hua Hin Beach Closed to Swimmers

The polyethylene mesh was installed at a depth of 8 meters to 10 meters, stretching 200 meters along the shore and roughly 80 meters into the sea.

Each opening of the mesh is 2.5 inches wide to prevent the passage of sharks and jellyfish but allowing small fish through, according to Sophon Tongdee, deputy chief of the marine department.

Sophon said the beach is the first to have the net installed nationwide.

In April, a small bull shark bit a Norwegian man’s left ankle. He received 19 stitches. The incident urged authorities to ban swimming in the area and install buoys to prevent encounters between humans and shark, according to Pallop Singhaseni, Prachuap Khiri Khan province governor.

Canada Declares Myanmar Treatment of Rohingya to Be Genocide

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Associated Press

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21 September 2018, 11:22

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland in 2017 in Ukraine. Photo: Урядовий портал / Wikimedia Commons

OTTAWA, Ontario — Canada’s Parliament has unanimously adopted a motion declaring crimes committed against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar to be genocide.

The motion Thursday also endorsed the findings of a United Nations mission that outlined how crimes against humanity have been committed by the Myanmar military against Rohingya and other minorities.

In Washington, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland praised members of Parliament for passing the motion to recognize “this atrocity.”

Human rights observers called the declaration as a significant milestone.

Some 700,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh after a brutal counter-insurgency campaign by Myanmar security forces. The U.N. report alleged widespread rights violations, including rape, murder, torture and the burning of Rohingya homes and villages.

Myanmar denies any organized abuses.

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