Marine officials on Monday recover the remains of a five-meter disc coral stolen from Koh Wiang in the Gulf of Thailand. Read: Task Force Weighed After 1,000-Year-Old Coral Stolen From Gulf Island
CHUMPHON — Officials announced plans to establish a task force to protect marine resources Wednesday after an ancient coral specimen was stolen from an island in the Gulf of Thailand.
Environmental Minister Gen. Surasak Kanjanarat said he will establish a Thai Seas Task Force to deal with such thefts as the authorities hunted for suspects in the destruction and theft of the disc coral from a cave on the gulf island of Koh Wiang.
“Some people want marine resources, so they commit the premeditated theft of coral,” Surasak said, adding that a multi-agency task force including government agencies, the coast guard and navy would deploy guards to vulnerable sites.
The Marine and Coastal Resources Department is seeking an arrest warrant for the unknown perpetrators who made off with the five-meter coral Monday morning, while local tour guides were chagrined over its loss.
The intact disc coral in an undated photo before its destruction Monday. Photo: Green Diving Tours / Facebook
“I feel so sad that people won’t get to see something so beautiful and old flourishing in its habitat,” said Jiamjit Somsorn, 54, owner of Green Diving Tours.
The stolen disc coral weighed about a metric ton and could have taken over 1,000 years to grow, Jiamjit said.
“Even with constant sunlight, this type of coral can only grow a centimeter per year. This particular coral only got an hour of sunlight a day in its cave, from 2pm to 3 pm, so it’s definitely possible that it’s over 1000 years old.”
Jiamjit said her fishermen tour guides take up to 10 people to the island. On Monday, when a guide arrived with several tourists to see the coral, he discovered it had been “dug out by the roots.”
“The cave opening is very small, smaller than the coral. About a fourth of the coral broke off during their flight. The pieces had been freshly broken off. They were so heavy, it took about four men to carry the pieces. So you can estimate that the entire coral weighed over a ton,” she said.
The other three-fourths of the coral, Jiamjit suspects, were stolen for decorative purposes.
“Only mega-millionaires would want it to decorate their home, not normal people. Sometimes we get strange requests from people asking us if they could take the coral to make bonsai coral decorations,” Jiamjit said. “But we took care that no one would take it from Koh Wiang.”
She said her diving tour company discovered the disc coral on Koh Wiang only a couple of years ago.
“It was a valuable treasure and natural resource that we cared for so well,” she said. “Although there’s other coral on Koh Wiang, this one was the beautiful highlight of the tour.”
Divers move broken pieces of the remaining Koh Wiang disc coral. The rest was missing.Jiamjit Somsorn, a local diving tour operator, holds up a photo of the whole Koh Wiang disc coral before it was destroyed.Divers and marine officials at Koh Wiang on Monday afternoon, looking for traces of the stolen, millennium-old Koh Wiang disc coral.
A Facebook post by the Department of Marine and Coastal resources summing up the theft and current investigation of the Koh Wiang disc coral.
A 6-year-old Australian boy makes an Islamic State salute in front of a human body hanging from a cross somewhere in the Middle East on Monday's front page of "The Australian" newspaper. Photo: Rod McGuirk / Associated Press
CANBERRA, Australia — Southeast Asian and Pacific governments will hold a summit in August to coordinate against the security threat posed by homegrown Islamic militants returning from battlefields in Syria and Iraq, an Australian official said on Wednesday.
Attorney-General George Brandis said he would co-host the summit in the Indonesian city of Manado in the last week of August that would also be attended by Malaysia, Philippines and New Zealand.
The other co-host is Wiranto, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs who uses one name.
“The focus of the inaugural meeting of the regional ministers summit on counterterrorism will be … returning foreign fighters,” Brandis told a Senate committee.
“It is the issue which is of greatest concern to heads of government and homeland security ministers in the region when it comes to counterterrorism,” he added.
Hundreds of militants are returning to their homes in the Asia-Pacific region as Islamic State fighters lose ground in Syria and Iraq. Officials fear that they will continue plotting to kill at home.
Brandis said security officials as well as political leaders would attend the summit to help build operational cooperation in the region.
Indonesia has hosted counterterrorism summits in the past, including a meeting of 20 nations on the resort island of Bali in August last year.
Brandis, who is responsible for Australia’s main spy agency, flew to Washington in March for counterterrorism talks with senior officials in President Donald Trump’s administration, including FBI director James Comey, who was fired this month.
Critics argue that Trump’s disclosure to Russian diplomats highly classified information about Islamic State plotting collected by Israel threatened trust in U.S. intelligence sharing with its allies.
But Brandis said: “The closeness of the relationship with our agencies cannot be overstated.”
“The change of administration in the United States has made no difference at all to the intimacy and the readiness of the Americans, in particular, to share through the Five Eyes community intelligence with Australia,” Brandis said, referring to the five-nation intelligence-sharing network that also includes Britain, Canada and New Zealand.
BANGKOK — The city’s nightlife funzone next month will bring the hype of Goa-psychedelic trance culture to town.
Los Angeles duo Irad Brant and Dui Bitton, under the alias Coming Soon, will soon come to Bangkok’s entertainment quarter for a massive trance party.
Supporting the main act from the main stage will be resident DJs from local trance outfits Trance Lovers in Thailand, PsyHead Community and Pure Decibel Record. They will include DJs Jonnie B, Hybrid J, Lee Van Willem, Kno Millican, Hype Viper and Fiske.
The event hosted by local trance communities will take place June 3 at Live RCA Bangkok. Presale tickets are 800 baht and available online. They’ll be 990 baht at the door.
Police and military officers collect evidence May 22, 2017, at the scene of bombing at Phramongkutklao Hospital.
BANGKOK — In lieu of Monday’s bomb attack at an army-owned hospital, the junta is considering resuming military trials for civilians.
The plan emerged as police have yet to identify the perpetrators of Monday’s blast, which injured dozens, while a warning letter before the blast claimed it the work of Muslim separatists, and the prime minister denied it was an inside job.
“They are having a meeting about it,” defense spokesman Kongcheep Tantravanich said Wednesday. “They see this issue as an issue of national security. They see it as sabotage that affects the morale of the entire country. It affects national security.”
Shortly after Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha seized power from the elected government in May 2014, he authorized military tribunals for protesters, junta critics and suspects accused of plotting violence. The use of military courts for new civilian cases was abolished in September, following criticism from human rights groups.
But Maj. Gen. Kongcheep said its return will not damage civil rights because it’s only meant to target “people who have malicious intent toward the country.”
No one has claimed responsibility for Monday’s bombing at Phramongkutklao Hospital, though nearly every bomb attack in the past has gone unclaimed. The attack coincided with the anniversary of the coup d’etat that brought the current regime to power in 2014.
However, police said they had found the connection between the hospital attack and two smaller explosions in Bangkok in the past two months, as well as the series of bombings that struck the capital on New Year’s Eve a decade ago.
Deputy police commissioner Srivara Ransibrahmanakul, who has been put in charge of the investigation, also said an anonymous person sent Phramongkutklao Hospital a letter warning of a bomb attack three days before the incident.
Although Gen. Srivara did not disclose details of the letter, police sources told the media it was sent to the director of the National Cancer Institute, located close to Phramongkutklao Hospital, warning of “terror attacks” at three unspecified hospitals in the area.
“Within this year there will be terror attacks inside three public hospitals in the area by the BRN and [Islamic State] movements. They entered the country through Malaysia last week. Watch out for Muslim women wearing veils and backpacks,” the letter reportedly said. It was signed “a repentant criminal.”
The Barisan Revolusi Nasional, or BRN, is the name of a separatist movement in Thailand’s Muslim-majority southern provinces which is said to have carried out other high-profile bombing campaigns.
Police spokesman Krissana Pattanacheroen said he could not confirm the letter’s contents.
“I only saw it on the news, like you,” Col. Krissana said. “I didn’t get to see the actual letter yet.”
Meanwhile junta chairman and Prime Minister Prayuth dismissed online speculation from some anti-coup critics that the government staged the bombing as a false-flag operation. He also hinted that it was an anti-government faction who might have been responsible.
“Don’t distort it and say the government did it. No government would be crazy enough to do that,” Prayuth told reporters Tuesday. “Except people who want to be government and think of doing it. But I don’t think like that.”
BANGKOK — Bangkok and much of the nation will be inundated by heavy rains through Monday as monsoon season thunders in.
Most of the country will see heavy rain roll in from the north and move down toward the capital and central provinces. Showers will reach the south by the weekend.
Bangkok and surrounding areas will see a 70 percent chance of rain, some heavy, through the weekend. Expect lows of 25C and highs of 37C.
The public is advised to be on the lookout for flash floods. Small ships on the Andaman Sea coast have been advised to refrain from leaving shore until weather conditions improve.
The first major cruise ships of the season arrived May 1 in Alaska's capital city, Juneau. Photo: Becky Bohrer / Associated Press
JUNEAU, Alaska — A human leg with a fishing boot still on was found in a debris pile that collected in the waters near Alaska’s capital city.
Juneau Police Lt. David Campbell says the leg – from the knee down – was found by state game workers clearing out a debris pile Monday from Gastineau Channel near Sandy Beach.
It had deteriorated to the point they couldn’t determine race or gender. It’s been sent to the state medical examiner’s office in Anchorage for possible identification.
Police will search for other remains. He wasn’t aware of any missing people in Juneau this year.
Campbell says bodies show up in Juneau every few years. The last was in 2016 when a hiker found human remains near Mendenhall Glacier. He says those were of a person reported missing in 2010.
A file photo dated 14 September 2013 shows 8,848 m (29,028 feet) high Mount Everest, seen from an aircraft over Nepal. One year after an avalanche killed 16 Sherpas on Mount Everest and ended the climbing season, mountaineers are scrambling toward the world's highest peak once again. EPA/NARENDRA SHRESTHA
KATHMANDU, Nepal— A government official and a rescue coordinator say four bodies have been found inside a tent at the highest camp on Mount Everest.
Tourism Department official Hemanta Dhakal said the four bodies were found by a team of rescuers who were there to recover the body of a Slovak mountaineer who died over the weekend.
The identities of the dead climbers in the tent were still unknown Wednesday and other rescuers were heading there to learn more details.
Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, who was coordinating the recovery of the Slovak climber’s body, said the Sherpa rescuers found the four bodies on Tuesday night.
Six climbers have already died on the world’s highest mountain this year attempting to reach the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) summit.
British actor Sir Roger Moore in 2011 as he arrives at the Monaco palace for the religious wedding ceremony of Prince Albert II of Monaco and Charlene Princess of Monaco. Photo: Michel Spingler / Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Reaction to the death of Roger Moore Tuesday at age 89.
— “The world has lost one of its great champions for children – and the entire UNICEF family has lost a great friend. In his most famous roles as an actor, Sir Roger was the epitome of cool sophistication; but in his work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, he was a passionate – and highly persuasive – advocate for children. He once said that it was up to all of us to give children a more peaceful future. Together with Lady Kristina, he worked very hard to do so.” – UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake in a statement.
— “Roger Moore, loved him. At 10 I used to try to dress like Simon Templar. My mother worked part time at the Indonesian embassy. Added intrigue to my persona.” – Russell Crowe on Twitter.
— “Roger, wherever you are, you brought a lot of light to the world.” – Sir Anthony Hopkins, in an interview.
— “Oh no. As if today wasn’t already sad enough. RIP Sir Roger Moore, 89. A wonderful actor & lovely man.” – Piers Morgan on Twitter.
— “He’s Bond, man. He played James Bond. That’s one of those iconic characters that memorializes you forever in entertainment. I was sorry to hear that he passed today. My thoughts and prayers are with his family. He lived a great life.” – Josh Duhamel in an interview.
— “The first leading role I ever had as a Bond girl was such a new and frightening world and Roger held my hand and guided me through every process. He taught me about work ethic and humility. He was so funny, kind and thoughtful to everyone around him and in that Roger taught me what a movie star really was and should be. Through his lifelong work with UNICEF he showed me the true meaning of being a humanitarian and giving back. He was my Bond.” – Jane Seymour on Instagram.
— “It is indeed with a heavy heart that I hear the news of your passing this morning. You were a big part of my life, from The Saint to James Bond.. .you were a magnificent James Bond and one that lead the way for me, the world will miss you and your unique sense of humor for years to come.” – Pierce Brosnan, who also played Bond, in a Facebook post.
— “Tony & Sir Roger Moore were funny in The Persuaders. Already so sad this day. Children. Innocents. Hands held out 2 those affected. #allies” – Jamie Lee Curtis, who posted a photo of her father and Moore together on Twitter.
— “R.I.P Sir Roger Moore. He was the king of cool.” – Boy George on Twitter.
— “Few are as kind & giving as was Roger Moore. Loving thoughts w his family & friends. He will be missed too by UNICEF” – Mia Farrow on Twitter.
— “RIP Sir Roger Moore. My first Bond and one of the first actors that I loved as a kid. And a lovely, funny, warm person to boot. Farewell.” – Filmmaker Edgar Wright on Twitter.
— “RIP Sir Roger Moore. The car that turned into a sub in The Spy Who Loved Me blew my mind as a kid.” – Filmmaker James Wan on Twitter.
— “Roger was a beloved part of the MGM family for decades and leaves behind a legacy of iconic film and television performances that will be revered for generations to come. His suave sophistication in his defining role as James Bond was matched only by his generosity and kindness. He bettered the lives of countless individuals around the world through his long-standing involvement with UNICEF as a Goodwill Ambassador.” – Gary Barber, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. CEO and chairman in a statement.
LONDON — Roger Moore, the suavely insouciant star of seven James Bond films, has died in Switzerland. He was 89.
The British actor died Tuesday after a short battle with cancer, according to a family statement posted on Moore’s official Twitter account.
“We know our own love and admiration will be magnified many times over, across the world, by people who knew him for his films, his television shows and his passionate work for UNICEF, which he considered to be his greatest achievement,” the statement said.
Moore’s relaxed style and sense of whimsy, which relied heavily on the arched eyebrow, seemed a commentary on the essential ridiculousness of the Bond films, in which the handsome British secret agent was as adept at mixing martinis, bedding beautiful women and ordering gourmet meals as he was at disposing of super-villains trying to take over the world.
“To me, the Bond situations are so ridiculous, so outrageous,” he once said. “I mean, this man is supposed to be a spy and yet, everybody knows he’s a spy. Every bartender in the world offers him martinis that are shaken, not stirred. What kind of serious spy is recognized everywhere he goes? It’s outrageous. So you have to treat the humor outrageously as well.”
While he never eclipsed Sean Connery in the public’s eye as the definitive James Bond, Moore did play the role of secret agent 007 in just as many films as Connery did, and he managed to do so while “finding a joke in every situation,” according to film critic Rex Reed.
British actor Roger Moore, playing the title role of secret service agent 007, James Bond, is shown on location in England in 1972. Photo: Associated Press
The actor, who came to the role in 1973 after Connery tired of it, had already enjoyed a long career in films and television, albeit with mixed success.
He was remembered warmly by fans of the popular U.S. 1950s-60s TV series “Maverick” as Beauregarde Maverick, the English cousin of the Wild West’s Maverick brothers, Bret and Bart. He also starred in the 1959 U.S. series “The Alaskans.”
In England, he had a long-running TV hit with “The Saint,” playing Simon Templar, the enigmatic action hero who helps put wealthy crooks in jail while absconding with their fortunes. By the time the series, which also aired in the United States, ended in 1969, his partnership with its producers had made him a wealthy man.
Such success followed a Time magazine review of one of his earliest films, 1956’s “Diane,” in which his performance opposite Lana Turner was dismissed as that of “a lump of English roast beef.”
In the 1970s, film critic Vincent Canby would dismiss Moore’s acting abilities as having “reduced all human emotions to a series of variations on one gesture, the raising of the right eyebrow.”
Born in London, the only child of a policeman, Moore had studied painting before enrolling in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He played a few small roles in theater and films before his mandatory army duty, then moved to Hollywood in the 1950s. He appeared opposite Elizabeth Taylor in 1954’s “The Last Time I Saw Paris” and with Eleanor Parker in “Interrupted Melody” the following year.
In 1970, he became managing director for European production for Faberge’s Brut Productions. With the company, he co-starred with Tony Curtis in “The Persuaders!” for British television and was involved in producing “A Touch of Class,” which won a best-actress Oscar for Glenda Jackson.
Three years later, he made his first Bond film, “Live and Let Die.”
He would make six more, “The Man With the Golden Gun,” ”The Spy Who Loved Me,” ”Octopussy,” ”Moonraker,” ”For Your Eyes Only and “A View to a Kill” over the next 12 years. And while the Bond of the Ian Fleming novels that the films were based on was generally described as being in his 30s, Moore would stay with the role until he was 57.
He continued to work regularly in films after handing over Bond to Timothy Dalton, but never with the same success. His post-Bond films included such forgettable efforts as “The Quest” with Jean-Claude Van Damme and “Spice World” with the Spice Girls.
In 1991, Moore became a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, having been introduced to the role by the late actress Audrey Hepburn. As Hepburn had, he threw much of his energy into the task.
“I felt small, insignificant and rather ashamed that I had traveled so much making films and ignored what was going on around me,” he said in describing how the work had affected him.
In 1996, when his UNICEF job took him to the World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, he disclosed that he too had been a victim.
“I was molested when I was a child — not seriously — but I didn’t tell my mother until I was 16, because I felt that it was something to be ashamed of,” he told The Associated Press.
He gave no details, but said it was important to encourage young victims not to feel guilty.
“They’re being exploited. We have to tell them that,” Moore said.
Moore received the Dag Hammarskjold Inspiration Award for his work with UNICEF and was named a commander in France’s National Order of Arts and Letters in 2008, an award he said was worth “more than an Oscar.” That same year he published an autobiography, “My Word Is My Bond,” which included details about his work on the Bond films, his friendship with Hepburn, his encounters with Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and other stars, and his health struggles — including a bout with prostate cancer, which he beat.
Moore was divorced three times, from skater Doorn Van Steyn in 1953, English singer Dorothy Squires in 1969 and Italian actress Luisa Mattioli, the mother of his children Deborah, Geoffrey and Christian, in 2000.
He married a fourth time, in 2002, to Swedish socialite Kristina Tholstrup.
British rights activist Andy Hall speaks to the media outside a Bangkok court on Sept. 2, 2014. Photo: Athit Perawongmetha / Reuters
BANGKOK — The lead author of the revised Computer Crime Act and a public prosecutor said Tuesday that the law can no longer be used as a tool for defamation lawsuits, and all those filed under it must be dismissed.
In a change that would have far-reaching implications, about 50,000 defamation cases filed under the original 2007 Computer Crime Act will be dismissed when its updated version comes into effect Wednesday, as officials said it can no longer be used for prosecuting defamation.
In the decade since it was introduced, the swelling number of cases of online defamation filed under Article 14(1) of the law have been criticized as an abusive misapplication of what was supposed to be an anti-cyber scam law to suppress expression and silence criticism.
The article made criminal “importing into a computer system forged computer data, partially or entirely, or false computer data in a manner that is likely to cause damage to an individual or the public.”
For its vague wording, it was often used against journalists, critics, activist and human rights defenders, as it prescribed harsher punishment than defamation under the Penal Code.
The Internet Law Reform Dialogue, or iLaw, says it’s been used arbitrarily against activists, whistleblowers and journalists in at least 43 cases to date.
The change would affect cases such as the conviction last year of British labor rights advocate Andy Hall, who quit the country last year under a cloud of further prosecution.
Causing damage to an “individual” was excised from the new version of Article 14(1) published Jan. 24 in the Royal Gazette. It also explicitly states that the law cannot be used to prosecute what is already addressed in the Penal Code as defamation.
A lawyer specialized in cyber law who helped rewrite the law said the changes would restore the article to its original purpose: combating phishing and scamming.
It will remain usable for offenses of importing forged, false or distorted computer information deemed damaging to the public at large.
“But all cases that misused the Computer Crime Act to sue for defamation must be dismissed,” said attorney Paiboon Amonpinyokeat at a Tuesday public hearing on related regulations.
For the mechanism that would benefit nearly 50,000 cases, public prosecutor Khomkhanae Hongthananan said prosecutors must drop cases not yet submitted.
For those cases that are presently being tried, prosecutors can file a motion to withdraw the charge. If the prosecutor does not do so, Khomkhanae said defendants can move to have the count vacated or wait for the court to automatically rule them not guilty.
Arthit Suriyawongkul of the Thai Netizen Network said at the hearing that state prosecutors should take responsibility instead of putting the burden on the defendants.
Article 14 of the new bill retains the authority to punish those found guilty of importing false information that can cause harm to national security – and pornograhy. It also punishes importing any kind of information deemed illegal under the Penal Code concerning national security and terrorism.
The revised law is still criticized for measures pushing service providers to self-censor content on their platforms.
As the hearing was underway, telecommunications regulators met with the Asia Internet Coalition to ask for more cooperation making content deemed illegal under Thai law inaccessible.
The coalition includes social media giants such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Line and Yahoo.
Top regulatory executive Takorn Tantasith, who previously threatened to prosecute Facebook for not removing illegal content despite not having obtained valid court orders supporting the request, said he explained to the coalition today Thailand never had any intention of shutting down Facebook and only sought to have the offending items censored for users in Thailand.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said Facebook was threatened with legal action despite the government’s possession of valid court orders. The word “not” was omitted from the sentence.
