Swede’s Bike Stolen in Pattaya

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10 February 2017, 11:34

Christopher Gwangsan Carson reporting his stolen motorbike to Pattaya City Police Thursday evening at Big C Supercenter Pattaya.

PATTAYA — When Kristofer Kwang Sun Karlsson stopped at a Big C Supercenter on Thursday evening, it took him five minutes to realize he’d left the key in the ignition.

By the time he ran back to his bike, it was gone.

Pattaya City Police are still hunting down the man who allegedly stole Karlsson’s bike 7:30pm on Thursday at Big C Supercenter Pattaya.

Update: Police Refute Swede’s Account of ‘Stolen Bike’

“If he hadn’t left his key in the ignition then this case would be more okay. Anyone passing by could’ve taken it,” Police Lt. Col. Pawatchai Sudsakorn said. Police are not sure if the alleged bike thief has committed repeated crimes.

Karlsson, a 36-year-old Swede, said to police that he had bought his red-black Honda Click motorbike only a couple months ago.

Police on Friday were reviewing security camera footage to look for the thief and charge him with theft.

Atlanta’s 6-Ton Civil War Cyclorama Painting to be Moved

By

Associated Press

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10 February 2017, 11:18

Visitors view the Atlanta Cyclorama, the colossal Civil War painting in 2015 in Atlanta. Photo: David Goldman / Associated Press

ATLANTA — A colossal panoramic painting depicting the Battle of Atlanta from the Civil War will be lifted by cranes from the building where it has been for nearly a century and then trucked to its new location.

Moving the 6-ton Cyclorama – one of the world’s largest paintings – from Grant Park to the Atlanta History Center across town marks a major milestone in its restoration, historians said.

“We’re on the cusp of a historic moment,” said Gordon Jones, a military historian and curator at the Atlanta History Center.

Crews began the delicate process Thursday, and the move was expected to take two days. Those in charge say they’re using extreme caution to ensure the 15,000-square-foot painting is not damaged.

The painting’s vivid scenes of charging soldiers, rearing horses, battle flags and broken bodies stretch the length of a football field when it is fully unfurled and on display.

“The Battle of Atlanta is one of the crucial moments in the campaign that really determined the outcome of the war,” Jones said. “What happened here in Atlanta is absolutely critical to the outcome of the country we know today.”

Before the move, the painting was cut at a seam into two pieces. Both pieces were rolled onto gigantic, custom-built steel spools, each taller than a four-story building.

Holes were carved in the concrete roof of the old Atlanta Cyclorama and Civil War Museum. Cranes will lift these spools of painted history through the roof, and then onto waiting trucks for the trip nine miles north to a brand new building at the Atlanta History Center, spokesman Howard Pousner said.

The artwork, created by the American Panorama Co. in Milwaukee in the 1880s, is one of only two such panoramas on display in the nation. The other one is at Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania.

The Atlanta painting had long been housed in a corner of the city zoo, something of a historic oddity in a city whose modern persona is more entwined with civil rights than the Civil War.

But before the age of movies, the panoramas offered a 360-degree view of battles and other historic events, and their popularity gave rise to a lucrative business for painters. The American Panorama Co. hired many German immigrants to paint the giant scenes at the Milwaukee company.

Now, a collection of 140-year-old diaries written by one of the main painters – Friedrich Wilhelm Heine – is providing new insights about their visit to Atlanta to make sketches for the Cyclorama, and their return to Milwaukee in a frantic effort to meet a deadline.

“His diaries are essentially the only first-hand accounts of any of the painters who worked in Milwaukee at the time,” said Kevin Abing, an archivist at the Milwaukee County Historical Society.

Art historian Michael Kutzer, a painter who speaks German, is working to decipher Heine’s German diary entries. The intent is to give historians their first look at the step-by-step process of creating the mammoth panoramic paintings.

In summaries provided to The Associated Press, Heine describes a hurried effort to complete the Atlanta artwork on time, despite his painful battle with “frozen toes.”

He recounts how the painters made sketches in Atlanta atop a 25-foot scaffold over railroad tracks, despite one painter being afraid to climb it.

The diary entries also show that the painters didn’t always get along. Heine complained about the tardiness of one painter on his crew, and how the Austrians “chatter more than they are working.” Once, after a few beers, a painter became drunk and angry at Heine “and entire Amerika.”

After a lengthy restoration process, the “Battle of Atlanta” will go on display again next year in a new 23,000-square-foot building at the Atlanta History Center, officials said.

A viewing platform rising 12 feet above the gallery floor will offer “the sense of being enveloped by the 360-degree experience,” history center officials said.

The new exhibit will also include the “diorama” featuring 128 plaster figures that will continue to be displayed in the foreground of the painting as they have been since the 1930s, Jones said.

Among those plaster figures is a dead Union soldier with Clark Gable’s face. It was created after Gable and other “Gone With The Wind” cast members visited the Cyclorama during the film’s 1939 Atlanta premier, Jones said. While visiting, the actor made an offhand comment to Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield about his likeness being included in the display, Jones said.

“So Hartsfield contacted the guys who had done the plaster figures, and they promptly came up with a figure of a dead Union solider lying in the grass with the face of Clark Gable and a big bullet hole in his chest,” Jones said.

Story: Jeff Martin

New Zealanders Race to Save Whales After 400 Stranded

By

Associated Press

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10 February 2017, 11:04

Whales are stranded Friday at Farewell Spit near Nelson, New Zealand. Photo: Tim Cuff / Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — It was the sound of soft sighs and cries in the half-light that first struck Cheree Morrison, and then as the dawn broke she began to see the extent of the carnage – more than 400 whales had swum aground along a remote New Zealand beach.

About three-quarters of the pilot whales were already dead when Morrison and two colleagues found them Friday on Farewell Spit at the tip of the South Island.

Within hours, hundreds of farmers, tourists and teenagers were racing to keep the surviving 100 or so whales alive in one of the worst whale strandings in the nation’s history.

Morrison, a magazine writer and editor, stumbled upon the whales after taking a pre-dawn trip with a photographer and a guide to capture the red glow of the sunrise.

“You could hear the sounds of splashing, of blowholes being cleared, of sighing,” she said. “The young ones were the worst. Crying is the only way to describe it.”

The adult and baby whale carcasses were strewn three or four deep in places for hundreds of yards, often rolled over on the sand with their tail fins still aloft.

Morrison’s group alerted authorities, and volunteers soon began arriving in wetsuits and carrying buckets. Dressed in her jeans and sandshoes, Morrison waded into the water and did what she could to try to maneuver the surviving whales upright so they could breathe more easily.

“I walked away crying my eyes out,” she said. “We knew there were limited things we could do.”

When high tide came, volunteers did manage to refloat several dozen of the surviving whales, while others remained beached.

The volunteers then formed a human chain in the water to try to stop the creatures from swimming back and stranding themselves again. It will likely take a day or so to determine how successful their efforts have been.

Farewell Spit, a sliver of sand that arches like a hook into the Tasman Sea, seems to confuse whales and has been the site of previous mass strandings.

Department of Conservation community ranger Kath Inwood said about 300 volunteers had joined conservation workers on the beach.

She said the volunteers were continuing to keep the stranded survivors damp and cool by placing blankets over them and dousing them with buckets of water.

The high tide allowed volunteers their one shot of the day to help some of the whales. The volunteers will have to wait until the next daylight high tide on Saturday to try to refloat more of the whales, including any that strand themselves again.

There are different theories as to why whales strand themselves, from them chasing prey too far inshore to them trying to protect a sick member of the group.

Inwood said whale strandings occur most years at Farewell Spit, but the scale of this event came as a shock.

Sometimes described as a whale trap, the spit’s long coastline and gently sloping beaches seem to make it difficult for whales to navigate away from once they get close.

Authorities were asking for fit volunteers to travel to the beach and help with the rescue efforts. Getting there from the nearest provincial airport in Nelson involves a three-hour drive followed by a 15-minute hike.

Conservation workers said many of the surviving whales were likely to be in bad shape given the number of deaths, and that their conditions would likely deteriorate the longer they remained stranded.

Volunteer rescue group Project Jonah said a total of 416 whales had stranded and 75 percent were dead when they were discovered. The Department of Conservation put the number of dead whales at about 250 to 300.

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of whale strandings in the world, and Friday’s event is the nation’s third-biggest recorded stranding.

The largest was in 1918, when about 1,000 pilot whales came ashore on the Chatham Islands. In 1985 about 450 whales stranded in Auckland.

“It was just heartbreaking,” Morrison said. “Utterly heartbreaking.”

Story: Nick Perry

White House Adviser ‘Counseled’ for Promoting Ivanka Trump Brand

By

Associated Press

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10 February 2017, 10:56

White House adviser Kellyanne during her interview with Fox News Fox and Friends, Thursday in the briefing room of the White House in Washington. Image: Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The White House has “counseled” a top aide to President Donald Trump after she promoted Ivanka Trump’s fashion line during a national cable television appearance from the White House.

But House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz says that’s not enough, calling what Kellyanne Conway did “wrong, wrong, wrong, clearly over the line, unacceptable.”

The Utah Republican congressman and Democratic Oversight Leader Elijah Cummings jointly asked the Office of Government Ethics to review the matter.

Chaffetz also said he will write a formal letter to the White House lodging his irritation. He said White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s remark Thursday that Conway has been “counseled” doesn’t go far enough.

“It needs to be dealt with,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. It’s the first time during the young administration that Chaffetz has questioned an ethical matter.

Speaking later to Utah lawmakers, Chaffetz added: “Of course I’m going to call that out. My job is not to be a cheerleader for the president.”

The White House said later Thursday that Trump “absolutely” continues to support Conway. In response to questions from The Associated Press, the White House said Trump didn’t see Conway’s interview on Fox News. But a spokeswoman said Trump “understands she was merely sticking up for a wonderful woman who she has great respect for and felt was treated unfairly.”

In an interview later Thursday evening on Fox, Conway declined to discuss the case but said she had spoken with Trump and “he supports me 100 percent.”

The ethics dustup began Wednesday with the president himself.

Reacting to news that a department store had dropped his daughter’s line of clothing and accessories, Trump tweeted – and retweeted from the official presidential account – that Ivanka Trump had been treated “so unfairly by @Nordstrom.”

Ivanka Trump does not have a specific role in the White House but moved to Washington with her husband, Jared Kushner, who is one of Trump’s closest advisers. She followed her father’s approach on business ties by handing over operating control of her fashion company but retaining ownership of it.

In a Thursday morning interview with Fox News from the White House briefing room, Conway urged people to “go buy Ivanka’s stuff,” boasting that she was giving the brand “a free commercial here.”

While Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are not subject to ethical regulations and laws for federal employees, Conway, who is a counselor to the president, is. Among the rules: An employee shall not use his or her office “for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise.”

“For whatever reason, the White House staff evidently believes that they are protected from the law the same way the president and vice president are,” said Stuart Gilman, a former special assistant to the director of Office of Government Ethics.

He called Conway’s comments “unbelievable” and said they risk wrecking the U.S.’s reputation around the world as a model for government employee ethics.

Midday Thursday, the Office of Government Ethics sent a series of tweets saying the office has seen an “extraordinary” response from people emailing, calling and submitting information online about “recent events.”

The office advises federal employees on such issues but is not an enforcement agency; enforcement falls to Congress, the General Accounting Office, the FBI, various inspectors general and others, OGE noted on Twitter.

Ultimately, it is up to Trump to punish employees for ethics infractions.

It’s been a rough week for Conway. Her reference to a non-existent “Bowling Green massacre” in an MSNBC appearance made her a punchline for comics and Internet pranksters. She explained that it was a slip of the tongue and that she was referring to the 2011 arrest of two Iraqi nationals in Kentucky in a failed plot to send weapons overseas to al-Qaida, but it was subsequently found that she had made that misstatement before.

She also drew scrutiny from a tense interview with CNN.

In addition to the House Oversight Committee, two liberal-funded government watchdog groups pounced on Conway’s comments, filing ethics violation complaints with the Office of Government Ethics. A third group, the Project on Government Oversight, asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to open a Justice Department investigation into possible ethics violations.

Spicer said Wednesday that Trump was responding to an “attack on his daughter” when he posted the tweet and that “he has every right to stand up for his family and applaud their business activities, their success.”

Ethics lawyers had a different interpretation. The implication, intended or not: Hurt my daughter’s business and the Oval Office will come after you.

“This is a shot across the bow to everybody who is doing business with Trump or his family,” said Norman Eisen, who was President Barack Obama’s chief ethics counselor. “It’s warning them: Don’t withdraw their business.”

Nordstrom reiterated Wednesday that its decision to drop Ivanka Trump’s brand was based on its performance, not politics. The company said sales of her items had steadily declined over the past year, particularly in the last half of 2016, “to the point where it didn’t make good business sense for us to continue with the line for now.”

Story: Julie Bykowicz, Bernard Condon

Federal Appeals Court Refuses to Reinstate Trump Travel Ban

By

Associated Press

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10 February 2017, 10:34

Activity is seen outside the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals building Tursday in San Francisco. Photo: Haven Daley / Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court refused Thursday to reinstate President Donald Trump’s ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim nations, unanimously rejecting the administration’s claim of presidential authority, questioning its motives and concluding that the order was unlikely to survive legal challenges.

The three judges of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the argument that the ban targets Muslims raised “serious allegations” and presented “significant constitutional questions,” and they agreed that courts could consider statements by Trump and his advisers about wishing to enact such a ban.

Moments after the ruling, Trump tweeted, “SEE YOU IN COURT,” adding that “THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!”

In response, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat who leads one of the states that challenged the ban, said: “Mr. President, we just saw you in court, and we beat you.”

The panel declined to block a lower-court ruling that suspended the ban and allowed previously barred travelers to enter the U.S. But it did not shy away from the larger constitutional questions raised by the order.

The judges sided with the states on every issue except for one technical matter. They rejected the administration’s argument that courts did not have the authority to review the president’s immigration and national security decisions. They said the administration failed to show that the order met constitutional requirements to provide notice or a hearing before restricting travel. And they said the administration presented no evidence that any foreigner from the seven countries was responsible for a terrorist attack in the U.S.

“Despite the district court’s and our own repeated invitations to explain the urgent need for the Executive Order to be placed immediately into effect, the Government submitted no evidence to rebut the States’ argument that the district court’s order merely returned the nation temporarily to the position it has occupied for many previous years,” the panel wrote.

The court battle is far from over. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court seems likely. That could put the decision in the hands of a divided court that has a vacancy. Trump’s nominee, Neil Gorsuch, is unlikely to be confirmed in time to take part in any consideration of the ban, which was set to expire in 90 days unless it is changed.

The appellate judges noted compelling public interests on both sides.

“On the one hand, the public has a powerful interest in national security and in the ability of an elected president to enact policies. And on the other, the public also has an interest in free flow of travel, in avoiding separation of families, and in freedom from discrimination.”

The Justice Department said it was “reviewing the decision and considering its options.” It’s the first day on the job for new Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was sworn in at the White House earlier Thursday by Vice President Mike Pence.

Last week, U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order halting the ban after Washington state and Minnesota sued. The ban temporarily suspended the nation’s refugee program and immigration from countries that have raised terrorism concerns.

Justice Department lawyers appealed to the 9th Circuit, arguing that the president has the constitutional power to restrict entry to the United States and that the courts cannot second-guess his determination that such a step was needed to prevent terrorism.

The states said Trump’s travel ban harmed individuals, businesses and universities. Citing Trump’s campaign promise to stop Muslims from entering the U.S., they said the ban unconstitutionally blocked entry to people based on religion.

The appeals court sided with the administration on just one issue. The states had argued that 9th Circuit precedent prohibits review of temporary restraining orders. The panel said that due to the intense public interest at stake and the uncertainty of how long it would take to obtain a further ruling from the lower court, it was appropriate to consider the federal government’s appeal.

Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston, said the “million-dollar question” is whether the Trump administration would appeal to the Supreme Court.

That could run the risk of having only eight justices to hear the case, which could produce a tie and leave the lower-court ruling in place.

“There’s a distinct risk in moving this too quickly,” Blackman said. “But we’re not in a normal time, and Donald Trump is very rash. He may trump, pardon the figure of speech, the normal rule.”

Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School, said the ruling was thoughtful and supported by a great deal of legal precedent. More important, it was unanimous despite the fact that the panel included judges appointed by Democratic and Republican presidents.

“It’s a very important message that judges are not just politicians in robes and not just political hacks,” Levinson said. “The role of the judge is to transcend politics. That’s why they’re appointed for life, so they don’t worry about what’s popular. They worry about what’s legally correct.”

After the ban was put on hold, the State Department quickly said people from the seven countries – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen – with valid visas could travel to the U.S. The decision led to tearful reunions at airports around the country.

Story: Sudhin Thanawala

Fire at Central Embassy Shopping Mall in Bangkok

By

Khaosod English

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10 February 2017, 00:23

Fire above Central Embassy Thursday night in Bangkok.

BANGKOK — A fire broke out late Thursday night in a five-star hotel under construction above one of Bangkok’s luxury malls.

Just after 11pm, flames erupted from around the 30th floor of where a future Park Hyatt Hotel is being built above the Central Embassy shopping mall in downtown Bangkok.

Flames and smoke were seen billowing from the 30th floor where the hotel is under construction, according to Lumpini police.

Firemen were unable to fight the fire from outside and entered the building by stairs to get the fire under control.

The fire has been brought under control, according to JS100 radio.

Central Embassy มีเพลิงไหม้กรุบ นี่ถ่ายจากอาคารปาร์คเวนเจอร์ @js100radio pic.twitter.com/omBWT5IINZ

— One-space (@pps_space) February 9, 2017

Two Thai Buildings Named Favorites by World’s Architecture Geeks

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Chayanit Itthipongmaetee, Staff Reporter

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9 February 2017, 17:55

hubbato-yellowsubmarine — Hubba-To and Yellow Submarine Coffee Tank

BANGKOK — Two Thai buildings — one in the capital and another in Isaan – have been voted the best of more than 3,000 architectural projects from around the world on Tuesday.

Bangkok coworking space Hubba-To was awarded best interior, and Korat’s Yellow Submarine Coffee Tank cafe named for best hospitality by readers in an annual ranking published Tuesday by ArchDaily, one of the world’s top architecture news sites.

The two buildings were among 16 winning projects in 16 categories. More than 75,000 readers nominated about 3,000 entries which were then narrowed down in voting over a period of two weeks. The other winning projects included a small port complex in Portugal and a baseball stadium in Mexico.

Thong Lor community mall The Commons had been also nominated in the commercial architecture category but did not win. In November, the Thai architects behind that project – Amata Luphaiboon and Twitee Vajrabhaya Teparkum – won the World Architecture Festival’s Highly Commended Award in shopping category.

Photo: Yellow Submarine Coffee Tank / Facebook

Woman’s Quest for Exoneration Enters Second Day of Trial

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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9 February 2017, 17:43

Jomsap Saenmuangkhot thanks reporters Wednesday night for covering her retrial at Nakhon Phanom Provincial Court.

NAKHON PHANOM — A court convened Thursday for day two of a retrial requested by a woman who served a year and a half in prison for a crime she said she didn’t commit.

Jomsap Saenmuangkhot returned to the Nakhon Phanom provincial court for a hearing to examine the witnesses for the defense. The 45-year-old woman hopes to have her vehicular manslaughter conviction stricken from her record and her teaching job restored – a quest that has captured widespread attention and reignited debates about the justice system.

Jomsap didn’t speak to reporters as she arrived at the courthouse Thursday except to say she would let her lawyers take the lead.

“I’ll let my lawyers take care of contesting the charge,” Jomsap said.

Her trial runs Wednesday to Friday. Once the examination is concluded, the judges will forward all testimony to the Supreme Court, who will make the final ruling on whether her conviction should be overturned.

Read: Key Witnesses No-Show at Hearing for Teacher’s Retrial

Police identified Jomsap as the driver who killed a man in a hit-and-run incident in 2005, a charge she has denied to this day. She said was at home watching TV. The court found her guilty in late 2013 and sentenced her to prison. She was freed in 2015 on a royal pardon after spending a year and a half in jail.

Her case garnered much attention after she gave numerous media interviews in early January. Those who believed her story weren’t limited to credulous netizens either; the Ministry of Justice has thrown support behind Jomsap and lending legal assistance for her trial.

Key evidence brought by Jomsap’s lawyer team is a report compiled by Toyota engineers that the car driven by Jomsap did not bear any signs of a crash or collision.

Police have maintained throughout the controversy that investigators who worked on Jomsap’s case performed their duty without fault. After Jomsap went public with her version of events, a senior police official suggested she might have paid someone else to step forward and confess on her behalf.

But that officer, Gen. Panya Mamen, also said on Monday that police investigators should take a lesson from Jomsap’s case and make sure their cases are watertight.

“This issue is a lesson we all share,” said Panya.

He added that police will continue to work with the Ministry of Justice in reviewing past convictions that potentially deserve retrials and exoneration.

Prosecutors to Indict ‘Pai Dao Din’ Over BBC Thai Article

By

Pravit Rojanaphruk, Senior Staff Writer

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9 February 2017, 17:23

Jatupat ‘Pai’ Boonpattararaksa poses with his parents Aug. 24 in front of the Khon Kaen military court upon being freed on bail in another court case.

Update: Prosecutors indicted Jatupat on Friday in a closed court session under Article 112 and the Computer Crime Act as expected. He pleaded not guilty to both counts. The next hearing is March 21.

BANGKOK — Prosecutors will recommend that activist Jatupat “Pai” Boonpattararaksaup be tried for lese majeste law and violating the Computer Crime Act, an activist involved in his defense said Thursday.

Nuttaa Mahattana, who’s led a campaign for Jatupat’s release, said she learned from one of his lawyers, Pawinee Chumsri, that prosecutors planned to go forward with the case stemming from a story about King Rama X he shared online late last year.

“I felt that it would come to this point. It would have been good had he been granted bail to fight the case,” Nuttaa said.

Read: No Place in Democracy For Lese Majeste, UN Expert Says

Viboon Boonpattararaksa, Pai’s lawyer father and legal counsel, said he was not yet worried.

“Actually the legal team is not worried about the trial,” Viboon said. “What we are worried is that the process may not proceed as it should.”

Last month, Jatupat said he’d given up on receiving justice when the court held a secret hearing to deny him bail a fifth time. The court had briefly freed him soon after his arrest in December but soon rescinded it and jailed him again for complaining about the cost of his bail bond.

Jatupat was arrested in early December for sharing a critical biography of the new King written by BBC Thai on Facebook. He has been held for 50 days so far, Nuttaa said. He was denied bail a sixth time on Wednesday, and Friday was to be his seventh and final remand hearing as prosecutors must either charge or release him.

Nuttaa said Jatupat would be brought from the Khon Kaen Provincial Prison to the Criminal Court there to hear the decision. Jatupat, 25, is a seventh-year law student at Khon Kaen University and has publicly protested against the May 2014 military takeover.

He’s a member of the Dao Din student environmental and community rights group who has associated with the New Democracy Movement and participated in pro-democracy protests.

World’s Largest Refugee Camp Won’t Close, Kenyan Court Rules

By

Associated Press

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9 February 2017, 15:56

Refugees walk amongst huts at a refugee camp in 2011 in Dadaab, Kenya. Photo: Schalk van Zuydam / Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya — A Kenyan court has declared illegal a government order to close the world’s largest refugee camp and send more than 200,000 people back to war-torn Somalia.

Judge John Mativo said Thursday that Kenya’s internal security minister had abused his power by ordering the closure in May of Dadaab refugee camp, near the border with Somalia.

The judge said the decision is discriminatory and goes against the Kenyan constitution as well as international treaties that protect refugees against being returned to a conflict zone.

Mativo said the Kenyan government had not proved Somalia is safe for the refugees to return.

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