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Reaching for Blame, Police Connect Bombings a Decade Apart

Deputy police commissioner Srivara Ransibrahmanakul, seated at center, speaks Tuesday afternoon at Royal Thai Police headquarters in Bangkok.

By Chayanit Itthipongmaetee and Todd Ruiz

BANGKOK — Senior police on Tuesday drew links between the bombing of a Bangkok hospital to coordinated bomb attacks in the capital in 2007 the junta of that time blamed on supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra despite evidence they were carried out by southern separatists.

Deputy police commissioner Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said Monday’s bombing of Phramongkutklao Hospital, which injured at least 25 people, bore the same hallmarks of nine New Year’s Eve attacks that hit Bangkok on the last day of 2006, which killed three people.

Col. Kamthorn Auicharoen, the head of Bangkok’s bomb unit, said the three timer-controlled pipe bombs which have exploded since early April were built with the same materials — PVC pipes, capacitors, integrated circuit timers — as those a decade ago.

Police also found pieces of a green vase matching a green wall vase they believe was planted in the waiting room, which was seen in a photograph taken a few minutes before the blast, according to the deputy police commissioner Srivara Ransibrahmanakul.

The EOD chief said they found the timer bomb was set two to four hours prior to the explosion which happened at approximately 11am.

Police are also investigating a letter warning the hospital would be attacked that was sent to Phaya Thai district police on Friday, three days prior to the attack.

“It’s a normal letter. A warning letter from a Good Samaritan, actually. We’re investigating the letter’s authenticity,” said Maj. Gen. Sutee Nenkanthee.

Srivara chose his words carefully in connecting the bombing to those of a decade ago.

“But whether this time it was politically motivated like the 2007 bombings, I can’t confirm yet,” Srivara said Tuesday.

“Politically motivated” was how the New Year’s Eve bombings were described at the time as the military regime insinuated the culpability of Thaksin supporters just weeks ousting him in a coup.

At the time, army commander-cum-Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont famously dismissed evidence the bombs were made by southern separatists, saying, “I don’t think they would come here, as they could get lost in Bangkok.”

Blame and Evidence Diverge

It’s become routine since 2007 to ascribe similar attacks to Thaksin and the Redshirts through the use of coded language and thinly veiled accusations.

A Redshirt was arrested and later released following the April 2015 car bombing of a shopping mall on Koh Samui. Evidence later led investigators to southern separatists. When a terror attack killed 20 four months later at a Bangkok shrine, officials laid out a flimsy, circumstantial argument that Redshirts had made common cause with Chinese Uighurs and Turkish nationalists. A year later, when coordinated bomb and arson attacks ripped through seven southern provinces, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha immediately went on television to suggest it was the work of “bad people” opposed to the junta-backed constitution, an implication not lost on anyone.

Yet each time, suggestions the attacks were linked to Bangkok’s internecine political conflict rather than southern separatist violence have sunk beneath waves of physical evidence – the bombs turn out to be the same – and the actual suspects arrested.

Fifteen pro-democracy activists, most in their 60s and 70s, were arrested a few days after Prayuth’s comments on the eve of the Mother’s Day attacks. A week later, an umbrella group of southern insurgents reportedly took responsibility for the attacks, and by this past February, eight of the 10 ultimate suspects in the attack – all from the southernmost provinces and some linked to the Samui bombing – had been arrested.

Related stories:

Police Seek Men Seen in Waiting Room Selfie Before Blast

Army Chief Links Hospital Bombing to Recent Bangkok Attacks

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Islamic State Claims Authorship of Manchester Bombing

A 2014 screenshot of propaganda video published by the ISIS.

MANCHESTER, England — The Islamic State group says one of its members planted bombs in the middle of crowds in Manchester, England, where 22 people died in an explosion.

Police, however, have spoken only of “an improvised device” used in the attack.

IS says “a soldier of the caliphate planted bombs in the middle of Crusaders gatherings” then detonated them. It did not say whether the attacker was killed.

The group claimed that “30 Crusaders were killed and 70 others were wounded,” higher than the totals confirmed by authorities in Manchester.

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Police Arrest 23-Year-Old Man Over Manchester Bombing

Armed police stand next to an ambulance after an explosion at the Manchester Arena on Tuesday in Manchester, England. Photo: Peter Byrne / Associated Press

MANCHESTER, England — Greater Manchester Police say they have arrested a 23-year-old man in connection with the apparent suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in the city.

Police say the man was arrested in south Manchester Tuesday, a day after the explosion killed 22 people and injured 59, many of them teenagers.

They did not provide details.

Police also said officials arrested a man at the Arndale shopping center in central Manchester  but that the arrest is not believed to be connected to Monday night’s attack.

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Bangkok on Alert for Suspicious-Looking Object and Person After Hospital Bomb

BMA City Clerk Patarut Dardarananda speaks to reporters.

BANGKOK — City Hall has instructed officials in all districts to be on the lookout following Monday’s bomb blast at a military hospital which injured 25 people.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority urged its agencies and the public to keep an eye on suspicious-looking objects and people and prepare for possible emergencies. Police were put on patrol at major public areas – including bus stops, BTS Skytrain stations, BRT stops – and homes of VIPs. They were instructed to coordinate with apartment and condominium management to identify unusual activity.

A high priority letter was sent Monday night by the permanent authority secretary Patarut Dardarananda to all his deputies, district directors and other related BMA bodies to be on 24-hour vigilance.

The letter was not accompanied with any intelligence that any imminent attack was expected.

Read: Police Seek Men Seen in Waiting Room Selfie Before Blast

According to the letter, all city fire trucks are to be prepared, all security cameras tested and municipal security officers ready to support police or other officials if needed. Hospitals managed by the BMA were also told to prepare for emergencies.

No indication has been given that another attack is expected, but Monday’s bombing was believed to be the third pipe bomb attack in two months and represented a more lethal escalation. Two people were injured in each of two prior explosions, whereas the latest bomb was packed with nails and left in a hospital waiting room, apparently to inflict casualties.

The BMA instructions also told city workers to stay in touch with their superiors at all times in case of emergency. Local communities and networks of residents in Bangkok were urged to be on the lookout for suspicious-looking objects or people.

In a related development, Yutthapan Meechai, secretary to Bangkok Gov. Aswin Kwanmuang, said past lessons will be inculcated into emergency plans that will be introduced by Friday.

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Forbidden Fruit No Longer? Have Durian, Will Travel!

Photo: Momovieman / Flickr

BANGKOK — Love or hate it, May is the beginning of durian season.

Whatever you may think of the “king of tropical fruits,” its pungent odor has seen it banished from hotels and most public transportation, including the metropolitan rail system, airplanes and even inter-provincial buses.

Forbidden fruit. Photo: Mroach / Flickr
Forbidden fruit. Photo: Mroach / Flickr

This has left those looking to travel with their bounty of smelly fruit with few options – until now.

Those traveling Nakhon Chai Air – the fancy bus company that’s not an airline – no longer have to leave their durian at home, according to a spokeswoman who laid out the proper procedures Tuesday for traveling with the historically unwelcome fruit – albeit in the normally off-limits luggage section.

Eager to tap the durian-loving market segment to distinguish itself from competitors, the company has launched a durian-friendly policy and service for anyone traveling to and from Rayong province, arguably the heart of durian cultivation.

This is good news to all durian-toting passengers except those in the capital – Nakhon Chai has no Rayong-Bangkok service.

CEO Kruawan Wongrakmitr said this is in fact the second durian-season wherein the firm has offered to accommodate the popular but divisive fruit.

A company spokeswoman, who was unauthorized to give her name, said on the phone Tuesday that four sizes of styrofoam boxes are available for durian lovers to pack their precious fruit, adding that assistance was available if needed.

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How to Durian. Image: Nakorn Chai Air

The packages start at 75 baht for the smallest box that can hold one, small durian. The largest size can contain two big ones. It costs 120 baht, inclusive of tape and plastic bags to contain the bouquet. The company has even published a step-by-step manual on proper durian-packing procedures.

Asked if any untoward and smelly incidents have occurred, or whether emergency evacuations were ever needed, the staff reassured there has been none so far.

The company estimates it handles about a dozen durian transactions daily during harvest season, which runs May to July.

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Ambushed by Bomb and Gunfire, 2 Volunteer Soldiers Killed in Yala

YALA — Two paramilitary volunteers on patrol duty were killed in a bomb and gun attack in the Krong Pinang district of Yala province Tuesday afternoon.

The attack began with a roadside bomb followed by assailants opening fire on security forces. Two volunteer security forces died at the scene.

It was the second attack there in two days. On Monday, four soldiers were injured when a bomb exploded in Yala city

Police found remains of a 10-kilogram homemade bomb. The suspects in both attacks remain unidentified.

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Suicide Bomber Behind Manchester Attack, Police Say

Armed police work after an explosion at the Manchester Arena on Tuesday in Manchester, England. Photo: Peter Byrne / Associated Press

MANCHESTER, England — An apparent suicide bomber set off an improvised explosive device that killed 22 people at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, Manchester police said Tuesday.

Police said dozens more were injured in the Monday night blast carried out by a male, who was killed.

Forensic investigations are continuing to determine if the attacker had accomplices, said Chief Constable Ian Hopkins. He provided no information about the individual who detonated the device.

Hopkins said some of the dead were children but provided no further details about the victims or the attacker.

Hopkins said police are treating the blast as an act of terrorism “until we know otherwise.” The local ambulance service says 59 people were taken to hospitals.

It was not immediately clear if police were including the attacker among the 22 people reported to have died.

The concert was attended by thousands of young music fans in northern England.

There was panic after the explosion, which struck around 10:30 p.m. (2130 GMT) Monday night as Grande was ending the concert, part of her Dangerous Woman Tour.

The singer, who was not injured, tweeted hours later: “Broken. From the bottom of my heart, I am so so sorry. I don’t have words.”

Police cars, bomb-disposal units and 60 ambulances raced to the scene as the scale of the carnage became clear. More than 400 officers were deployed after the blast.

Manchester Arena said on its website that the blast struck outside the venue as people were leaving. Some eyewitnesses said it happened in the foyer of the arena just after the concert ended.

“A huge bomb-like bang went off that hugely panicked everyone and we were all trying to flee the arena,” said concertgoer Majid Khan, 22. “It was one bang and essentially everyone from the other side of the arena where the bang was heard from suddenly came running towards us as they were trying to exit.”

The incident sparked a nightlong search for loved ones as frantic parents tried to locate their teenage children, and groups of friends scattered by the explosion sought to find one another.

Taxi services offered to give stranded people rides home for free, and residents opened their homes to provide lodging for others who could not get home because public transport had shut down.

Twitter and Facebook were filled with appeals for information about people who had not been accounted for.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd called the incident “a barbaric attack, deliberately targeting some of the most vulnerable in our society  young people and children out at a pop concert.”

Jenny Brewster said she was leaving the concert with her 11-year-old daughter when the blast hit.

“As I turned around, boom, one loud noise,” she told Sky News. “A gentleman said ‘run!’ so we ran.”

Outside, she said, “you could smell the burning.”

Britain’s terrorist threat level stands at “severe,” the second-highest rung on a five-point scale, meaning an attack is highly likely.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Supporters of the extremist Islamic State group, which holds territory in Iraq’s Mosul and around its de facto capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa, celebrated the blast online. One wrote: “May they taste what the weak people in Mosul and (Raqqa) experience from their being bombed and burned,” according to the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group.

If the explosion is confirmed as a terrorist attack it would be the deadliest in Britain since four suicide bombers killed 52 London commuters on three subway trains and a bus in July 2005.

Video from inside the arena showed people screaming as they made their way out amid a sea of pink balloons.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the government was working to establish “the full details of what is being treated by the police as an appalling terrorist attack.”

May is due to chair a meeting of the government’s COBRA emergency committee later Tuesday. She and other candidates suspended campaigning for Britain’s June 8 election after the blast.

Police advised the public to avoid the area around the Manchester Arena, and the train station near the arena, Victoria Station, was evacuated and all trains canceled.

The Dangerous Woman tour is the third concert tour by 23-year-old Grande and supports her third studio album, “Dangerous Woman.”

Grande’s role as Cat Valentine on Nickelodeon’s high school sitcom “Victorious” propelled her to teen idol status, starting in 2010.

After Manchester, Grande was to perform at venues in Europe, including Belgium, Poland, Germany, Switzerland and France, with concerts in Latin America and Asia to follow.

Pop concerts and nightclubs have been a terrorism target before. Almost 90 people were killed by gunmen inspired by Islamic State at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris during a performance by Eagles of Death Metal on Nov. 13, 2015.

In Turkey, 39 people died when a gunman attacked New Year’s revelers at the Reina nightclub in Istanbul.

Manchester, 160 miles (260 kilometers) northwest of London, was hit by a huge Irish Republican Army bomb in 1996 that leveled a swath of the city center. More than 200 people were injured, though no one was killed.

Story: Jo Kearney, Gregory Katz, Jill Lawless

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Cook, Dance and Overdose on 6 Live Korean Shows

‘Jump’ performance. Photo: Korea Tourism & Organization / Courtesy.

BANGKOK — From South Korea to Bangkok come six performances for audiences to appreciate the taste of Korea through art.

Cooking, music, martial arts, traditional dance and drama will be featured in six live shows at the Korea Performance Festival, the highlight of which will be South Korea’s most popular live show, “Cookin’ Nanta,” which has brought wackiness to the kitchen since 1997.

Its success spawned two other cooking shows to be featured at the fest: “Bibap Chef” – in which chefs cook bibimbap to beatbox and acapella tunes – and “Pangshow,” in which audiences hop on stage to join in the breadmaking.

“Sachoom” is aimed at the hearts of K-pop fans, as it entwines dance and music in a romantic story. For more love stories, watch dance drama “Lotus,” a traditional performance that tells South Korean folktales.

For action fans, expect taekwondo and other Asian martial arts to combine in “Jump,” a live action-comedy that has made it to West End and Broadway.

Apart from the shows, Korean street food and a Hanbok dress photoshoot will also be available for visitors to get a full taste of South Korea. There will be a lucky draw for two round-trip tickets to Seoul after each day’s performances.

There will be two rounds of daily performances. The first round will start at 3pm with “Cookin’ Nanta,” “Bibap Chef” and “Jump Show.” The second round will begin at 5pm and feature “Lotus,” “Pangshow” and “Sachoom.”

Admission is free and tickets can be reserved online.

The festival runs June 2 to 3 at GMM Live House on the eighth floor of CentralWorld.

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Police Seek Men Seen in Waiting Room Selfie Before Blast

An expanded detail from a selfie image taken in a waiting room at Bangkok’s Phramongkutklao Hospital shows a green vase attached to the wall minutes before Monday’s blast.

BANGKOK — Police said Tuesday they are looking for several men seen in a photograph taken in a hospital waiting room minutes before a bomb exploded there.

Investigators are seeking the men, caught in an unidentified photographer’s selfie image, as persons of interest in the Monday morning bomb attack that injured dozens.

Authorities are trying to find the perpetrators who planted a fake green wall vase they believe contained the shrapnel-packed pipe bomb which exploded at about 11am at Bangkok’s Phramongkutklao Hospital.

Hospital staff told police they had never seen the vase in that spot, according to Bangkok police chief Lt. Gen. Sanit Mahathavorn.

“We’re working on it. Actually it’s lucky that we found the photo, which was taken five minutes before the explosion,” Sanit said Tuesday morning. “As for further details, I cannot talk about them right now.”

Read: Army Chief Links Hospital Bombing to Recent Bangkok Attacks

No suspects have been identified and no one has taken credit for the attack which hit the capital on the third anniversary of the military coup.

Security has been tightened at locations around the capital.

Heightened measures were being taken at locations including the Government House, Suvarnabhumi International Airport and at Phramongkutklao Hospital in the Ratchathewi district, where the bomb exploded at about 11am in a waiting room for retired civil servants.

Army chief Chalermchai Sitthisart said Monday that 42 people were injured in the attack. Police on Tuesday said that 25 had been hospitalized.

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Police officers investigate the waiting room where the attack happened Monday at Phramongkutklao Hospital.

The military quickly took the lead on investigating the blast. Chalermchai announced that it was linked to two recent pipe bomb explosions: an April blast at the government lottery headquarters and another outside the National Theatre, both on Ratchadamnoen Avenue. Two people were injured in each incident.

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An army officer and a canine patrol the Government House on Tuesday in Bangkok.
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Officers inspect a vehicle Tuesday near the Government House in Bangkok.

Neither the army nor police have publicly speculated about who might be behind the attack.

The past year has seen a surge of violence in the Deep South, including a brazen string of bomb and arson attacks last August which killed four people in seven provinces.

Late last year the authorities warned of plots to stage bomb attacks throughout the capital and arrested three men said to be involved in the southern insurgency. More than 6,800 people have died in the southernmost provinces since 2004, many of them civilians.

Domestic and international organizations such as the Medical Council and Human Rights Watch condemned Monday’s bombing of a medical facility.

“The council condemns every kind of violent action done at an infirmary, which are places of peace and reserved for those who are ill. [This bomb attack] was … a cruel and inhumane act no civilized person should do,” the Medical Council said in a statement.

Phramongkutklao Hospital is owned by the military but also sees members of the public.

“The bombing of a hospital is an outrageous rights abuse that shows total disregard for human life,” Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said Monday. “Bombing hospitals not only risks the lives of patients and medical workers, but disrupts medical care for many more.”

MEDICALCOUNCIL

A letter by the Medical Council of Thailand on Monday afternoon.

Related stories:

Army Chief Links Hospital Bombing to Recent Bangkok Attacks

 

 

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2 Men in Indonesia Caned Dozens of Times for Gay Sex

A Sharia law official whips a man convicted of adultery with a rattan cane in 2017 in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Photo: Heri Juanda / Associated Press
A Sharia law official whips a man convicted of adultery with a rattan cane in 2017 in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Photo: Heri Juanda / Associated Press

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia Two men in Indonesia’s Aceh province have been publicly caned dozens of times for consensual gay sex, a punishment rights advocates denounced as “medieval torture” and escalates an anti-gay backlash.

Hundreds packed the courtyard of a mosque to witness the caning Tuesday, which was the first time that Aceh, the only province in Indonesia to practice Shariah law, has caned people for homosexuality.

The men, aged 20 and 23, were arrested in March after vigilantes broke into their rented room to catch them having sex.

A Shariah court last week sentenced each man to 85 strokes. Heterosexual couples also were caned Tuesday, for affection outside marriage.

Indonesia’s LGBT community has been under siege in the past year. Prejudice has been fanned by stridently anti-gay comments from politicians and Islamic hard-liners.

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