Hun Sen Trashes Opposition’s Threat to Stage Protest

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20 September 2016, 10:42

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks in April of 2015 during a session at the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo: Achmad Ibrahim / Associated Press

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia’s leader responded angrily Monday to the opposition’s threat to hold nationwide demonstrations, saying such protests could sink any chances of resolving political differences through negotiations.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a speech to graduating students that the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party should speak politely and make a positive gesture if they want to ease tensions.

“To be clear about that, don’t threaten to stage a demonstration for the reason of seeking to resume negotiations. That is no way,” Hun Sen said. “I would be a dog if I were to negotiate (with you).”

He said the opposition should be speaking out in parliament, whose sessions it has stopped attending in protest at the ruling Cambodian People’s Party majority voting to lift the parliamentary immunity of its leaders, a move the opposition considers illegal.

The opposition complains of being harassed by politically influenced courts, after legal cases have forced party leader Sam Rainsy to stay in exile to avoid jail and his deputy Kem Sokha to take refuge behind supporters at party headquarters, where state security forces have gathered in armed shows of strength.

Critics of the government have seen its actions as an attempt to disrupt the opposition’s organizing efforts ahead of local elections next June. The next general election is not until mid-2018, but holding power at the local level is an advantage when national polls are held. Hun Sen has led Cambodia for three decades.

In response to the government actions, Kem Sokha said last week that the party is considering calling for nationwide protests. The opposition has strong support in the capital, and street demonstrations have traditionally been an effective form of push-back, but recent efforts to take to the streets have generally fizzled.

Hun Sen said that if talks were resumed with the opposition, the topics would exclude the legal cases of opposition members. He and his government insist these are criminal matters and not political issues.

A statement issued earlier this month by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern “about the escalating atmosphere of intimidation of opposition politicians, their supporters, civil society, and peaceful demonstrators inCambodia.” A joint statement issued by several foreign embassies expressed similar concern.

Activists and non-governmental organizations, which are generally critical of the government, have faced similar legal pressures. The murder in July of a prominent social critic, Kem Ley, allegedly by a man to whom he owed money, is widely regarded with suspicion.

On Monday, four prominent land activists were convicted and sentenced to six months each in prison for a protest they held five years ago.

The four women – Tep Vanny, Heng Mom, Bou Chhovy and Kong Chantha – are well known for protesting the eviction of residents from Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak lake community, which was to be turned into a luxury commercial development. They were convicted of insulting and obstructing civil servants.

The Boeung Kak protesters are among the most tireless of the government’s critics.

Story: Sopheng Cheang

New York Bombing Suspect Arrested

By

Associated Press

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19 September 2016, 22:49

Image released by U.S. FBI of bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami.

LINDEN, New Jersey — An Afghan immigrant wanted for questioning in the bombings that rocked a New York City neighborhood and a New Jersey shore town was captured Monday after being wounded in a gun battle with police that erupted when he was discovered sleeping in the doorway of a bar, authorities said.

WABC-TV footage showed 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami being loaded into an ambulance on a stretcher in Linden. He appeared to be conscious and looking around. His upper right arm looked bandaged and bloodied.

Two officers were wounded in the shootout but were not believed to have been seriously hurt, authorities said.

The arrest came just hours after police issued a bulletin and photo of Rahami, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan who lived with family in an apartment in Elizabeth, New Jersey, over a fried-chicken restaurant owned by his father.

Linden Mayor Derek Armstead said that late Monday morning, the owner of a bar reported someone asleep in his doorway. A police officer went to investigate and recognized the man as Rahami, police and the mayor said.

Rahami pulled a gun and shot the officer — who was wearing a bulletproof vest — in the torso, and more officers joined in a running gun battle along the street and brought Rahami down, police Capt. James Sarnicki said.

Police did not disclose how they zeroed in on Rahami as a person of interest in the bombings but were known to be poring over surveillance video. At the same time, five people who were pulled over in a vehicle Sunday night were being questioned by the FBI, officials said.

The shootout came after a weekend of fear and dread in New York and New Jersey, with authorities saying the bombings were looking increasingly like an act of terrorism with a foreign connection.

In addition to the blast that injured 29 people in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood on Saturday, an unexploded pressure cooker bomb was found blocks away, and a pipe bomb exploded in a New Jersey shore town before a charity race. No one was injured there. On Sunday, five explosive devices were discovered in a trash can at an Elizabeth train station.

Also on Saturday, a man who authorities say referred to Allah wounded nine people in a stabbing rampage at a Minnesota mall before being shot to death by an off-duty police officer. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

Authorities have not drawn any connection between the violence in Minnesota and the bombings in the New York area.

Citing the FBI, New Jersey State Police said Monday that the bombings in Chelsea and the New Jersey shore town Seaside Park were connected.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said as investigators gathered information, they learned there were “certain commonalities among the bombs,” leading authorities to believe “that there was a common group behind the bombs.”

Before Rahami’s capture, Cuomo said investigators have no reason to believe there are further threats, but the public should “be on constant guard.”

Around the time Rahami was taken into custody, President Barack Obama was in New York on a previously scheduled visit for a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, and said it was “extremely fortunate” nobody was killed in the bombings.

He called on Americans to show the world “we will never give in to fear.”

“We all have a role to play as citizens to make sure we don’t succumb to that fear. And there’s no better example of that than the people of New York and New Jersey,” the president said. “Folks around here, they don’t get scared.”

Rahami lived with his family on a busy street a few miles from the Newark airport. Early Monday, FBI agents swarmed the apartment.

Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage said Rahami’s father, Mohammad Rahami, and two brothers sued the city after it passed an ordinance requiring the First American Fried Chicken restaurant to close early because of complaints from neighbors that it was a late-night nuisance.

Ryan McCann, of Elizabeth, said that he often ate at the restaurant and recently began seeing the younger Rahami working there more.

“He’s always in there. He’s a very friendly guy, that’s what’s so scary. It’s hard when it’s home,” McCann said.

In the immediate aftermath of the New York bombing, de New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Cuomo were careful to say there was no evidence of a link to international terrorism. Both said Monday that appeared to be changing.

“The more we learn with each passing hour is it looks more like terrorism,” de Blasio said in an interview on NY1 News. Cuomo said on MSNBC: “Today’s information suggests it may be foreign-related, but we’ll see where it goes.”

On Sunday night, FBI agents in Brooklyn stopped “a vehicle of interest” in the investigation of the Manhattan explosion, according to FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser.

She wouldn’t provide further details, but a government official and a law enforcement official who were briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press that five people in the car were being questioned at an FBI building in Manhattan.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the investigation.

On Sunday, a federal law enforcement official said the Chelsea bomb contained a residue of Tannerite, an explosive often used for target practice that can be picked up in many sporting goods stores.

Cellphones were discovered at the site of both the New York and New Jersey bombings, but no Tannerite residue was identified in the New Jersey bomb remnants, in which a black powder was detected, said the official, who wasn’t authorized to comment on the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The pipe bomb that exploded Saturday in Seaside Park went off before a charity 5K race to benefit Marines and sailors. The race was canceled.

One of the five devices found at the Elizabeth train station exploded while a bomb squad robot tried to disarm it. No one was hurt.

Story: Deepti Hajela. Additional reporting Jake Pearson, Karen Matthews, Maria Sanminiatelli, Michael Balsamo, Dake Kang, Michael Catalini, Eric Tucker, Alicia A. Caldwell and Kevin Freking

Army Decries Smear Campaign Against Prayuth’s Sister-in-Law

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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19 September 2016, 18:40

Pongpan Chan-ocha, head of the army wives association, is welcomed on Aug. 24 at an army facility in Nakhon Sawan province. Photo: Wives Association of the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defense

BANGKOK — When the chairwoman of an army wives’ club toured the countryside and handed out charity to the needy, photos of the event showed officials bow and curtsy to her. She was escorted by a phalanx of uniformed aides, who in one photo obediently held an umbrella for her.

A week ago, a community reservoir was dedicated in Chiang Mai province below a large banner with saying giving thanks and naming it for “Mother Pongpan.”

In recent days, those photos have raised complaints that such kind of reverence and honor is reserved for members of the Royal Family, and that Pongpan Chan-ocha is being treated as one by the military – a serious allegation in Thailand. The army says she is being targeted by a smear campaign.

“Do you guys think that the photos of soldiers holding up an umbrella for her like that is appropriate or similar to xxx?” someone asked on the Pantip webforum, in apparent reference to the royalty. “Please answer me. Is this woman of some royal bloodline? Why is she behaving so highly?”

Reports on Friday indicated the army had removed the banner, though it said through a media proxy the accusation was nothing more than a smear attack.

Pongpan is chairwoman of the Wives Association of the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defense (WAOPSD), a group that’s been around since 1989. She’s also wife of Gen. Preecha Chan-ocha, whose brother Prayuth Chan-ocha rules the country as the junta chairman and prime minister.

Opponents of the military government have definitely seized on the images.

A banner proclaims Pongpan Chan-ocha the namesake of the Mae Pongpan Pattana dam Sept. 12 in Chiang Mai province. Photo: Wives Association of the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defense

Photos of Pongpan’s trips, originally published by the Defense Ministry, were picked up by Facebook pages associated with the Redshirt movement and widely shared last week.

“If you didn’t tell me [who she was], I would have thought it’s a new member of the Royal Family,” the anonymous admin of Stop Hypocrisy in Thailand wrote Saturday.

“She’s just a peasant, but she’s behaving like a noblewoman, Her Royal Highness Pongpan Chan-ocha. She deserves to be charged with 112,” wrote Redshirt activist Anurak Jeantawanich on Saturday, referring to royal defamation charge.

Reached for comment by telephone Monday, Gen. Preecha said he and Pongpan had done nothing wrong but would not discuss the matter further.

“I didn’t do anything wrong. My wife didn’t do anything,” said Gen. Preecha, who’s both a member of the junta and permanent secretary of defense. “I don’t know what those people want from me and my wife.”

No one picked up the phone for the Ministry of Defense Wives Club on Monday afternoon.

Pongpan Chan-ocha in a Jan. 18 photo during a visit in Lopburi province. Photo: Wives Association of the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defense

Wassana Nanuam, a self-styled military reporter for Bangkok Post, wrote on her Facebook she was told by officials that the photos were leaked by insiders who intended to discredit Pongpan.

Wassana said officials suspect the smear campaign was by people who didn’t get the positions they wanted in the latest army shakeup, or people who disliked Pongpan’s personalities.

“She’s a strict person. She’s full of discipline. And she may have criticized someone frankly, so it may have lead to bad feelings,” wrote Wassana, who often disseminates statements from the army.

Prayuth’s Brother Defends Granting His Own Son Officer’s Rank

Junta Leader Fit For Premiership, Says His Lawmaker Brother

100,000 Have Died From Indonesia Haze, Study Finds

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Associated Press

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19 September 2016, 15:59

students ride on a boat on their way to school Thursday while haze from wildfires blanket the Musi River in Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo: Tatan Syuflana / Associated Press

JAKARTA — Indonesian forest fires that choked a swath of Southeast Asia with a smoky haze for weeks last year may have caused more than 100,000 deaths, according to new research that will add to pressure on Indonesia’s government to tackle the annual crisis.

The study by scientists from Harvard University and Columbia University to be published in the journal Environmental Research Letters is being welcomed by other researchers and Indonesia’s medical profession as an advance in quantifying the suspected serious public health effects of the fires, which are set to clear land for agriculture and forestry. The number of deaths is an estimate derived from a complex analysis that has not yet been validated by analysis of official data on mortality.

The research has implications for land-use practices and Indonesia’s vast pulp and paper industry. The researchers showed that peatlands within timber concessions, and peatlands overall, were a much bigger proportion of the fires observed by satellite than in 2006, which was another particularly bad year for haze. The researchers surmise that draining of the peatlands to prepare them for pulpwood plantations and other uses made them more vulnerable to fires.

The estimate of early deaths linked to respiratory illness and other causes covers Indonesia and its neighbors Singapore and Malaysia. It dwarfs Indonesia’s official toll of 19 that included deaths from illness and the deaths of firefighters. However, the possible scale of serious health consequences was indicated by a statement from the country’s disaster management agency in October that said more than 43 million Indonesians were exposed to smoke from the fires and half a million suffered acute respiratory infections.

The study considered only the health impact on adults and restricts itself to the effects of health-threatening fine particulate matter, often referred to as PM2.5, rather than all toxins that would be in the smoke from burning peatlands and forests. The bulk of the estimated deaths are in Indonesia, by far the most populous of the three countries and the country with the biggest land area affected by haze.

The fires from July to October last year in southern Sumatra and the Indonesian part of Borneo were the worst since 1997 and exacerbated by El Nino dry conditions. About 261,000 hectares of land burned. Some of the fires started accidently, but many were deliberately set by companies and villagers to clear land for plantations and agriculture.

Rajasekhar Bala, an environmental engineering expert at the National University of Singapore, one of five experts who reviewed the paper for The Associated Press and were not involved in the research, said the study is preliminary and involved a “very challenging” task of analyzing the sources and spread of fine particulate matter over several countries and a lengthy time frame.

Even with caveats, it should serve as a “wake-up call” for firm action in Indonesia to curb peatland and forest fires and for regional cooperation to deal with the fallout on public health, he said.

“Air pollution, especially that caused by atmospheric fine particles, has grave implications for human health,” he said.

Frank Murray, an associate professor of environment science at Australia’s Murdoch University, said the death estimates are not “precise health outcomes” but their overall scale should trigger intensified efforts to deal with the crisis. The study is a major contribution to addressing an international problem, he said.

The study finds there is a high statistical probability that early deaths ranged between 26,300 and 174,300. Its main estimate of 100,300 deaths is the average of those two figures. It predicts 91,600 deaths in Indonesia, another 6,500 in Malaysia and 2,200 in Singapore.

The researchers involved in the study say the model they developed can be combined with satellite and ground station observations to analyze the haze in close to real time. That gives it the potential to be used to direct firefighting efforts in a way that reduces the amount of illness caused, they say.

The annual fires have strained relations between Indonesia and its wealthier neighbors Singapore and Malaysia, who are at the mercy of winds that carry the haze into their territory from Sumatra.

But the brunt of the crisis is faced by millions of Indonesians in Sumatra and Kalimantan, many of them poor and with little or no means to protect themselves from the blanket of smoke.

“Particles penetrate indoors, and housing in Indonesia is very well ventilated, so I don’t think there is any avertive behavior that people there could have taken that would have been effective,” said Joel Schwartz, an air pollution epidemiologist at Harvard who co-authored the study. “In Singapore, if you close all the windows and turn on the air conditioning you get some protection, which may have happened.”

The Indonesian Medical Association’s West Kalimantan chapter said Indonesia faces an overall decline in the health of future generations with social and economic consequences if the situation is not tackled.

“We are the doctors who care for the vulnerable groups exposed to toxic smoke,” said Nursyam Ibrahim, deputy head of the West Kalimantan chapter of the association. “And we know how awful it is to see the disease symptoms experienced by babies and children in our care.”

Howard Frumpkin, dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Washington, said it is possible the health consequences are greater than indicated by the study because higher incidence of certain health problems in developing countries could make populations more susceptible to the effects of fine particulate matter.

Story: Stephen Wright

Art on Trial: The Mor Lam Singer

By

Kaewta Ketbungkan, Staff Reporter

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19 September 2016, 15:01

‘Being Nor Chor means being prisoners, showing that we’re inferior /
Comrades come to see if I’m alright, saying that my family is in agony /
… Being Nor Chor is to live behind the bars, a place that’s inferior’

– Nor Chor (Male Prisoner) Song

On stage, he’s earned the name Bak Nuat Ngoen Lan, or The Million-Baht Mustache Man.

Jailed for two years for performing in a play that satirized the monarchy, Patiwat “Bank” Saraiyam turned to his enduring passion for singing mor lam, writing what he said was 100 songs. Some expressed his feelings. Others, he said, helped soothe fellow inmates.

“Mor lam is the only thing that can affirm who I am, and what I’m capable of,” Bank said. “There, you’re forced to feel hopeless and isolated. That’s when you try to retrieve the smallest glimpse of being human. Mor lam and art could regain my essence as a human being, where others turn to the dark side.”

Not all were grim jailhouse ballads. His song “The Benevolence of Yoni,” was a bawdy poem about a kind vagina that gave birth to many lives and instilled men with courage.

He said two years in jail made him realize mor lam was “my life and my soul, as it consoled me through the hard times to keep on breathing and have some hope” of returning to the stage.

Patiwat 'Bank' Saraiyam poses before taking the stage to sing mor lam at the official launch of For Friends Association on Aug. 20, 2016. — Patiwat ‘Bank’ Saraiyam poses before taking the stage to sing mor lam at the official launch of For Friends Association on Aug. 20, 2016.

Bank studied mor lam at Khon Kaen University. There as in much of the northeastern provinces that comprise Isaan, In mor lam is the singer and mor lam is the song.

“My voice wasn’t melodious like other singers, but I persisted in singing mor lam, and I was determined to succeed,” he said.

He got stage experience performing on and off campus, discovering and developing his talents for improvisational humor in songs about love and politics and devising colorful costumes.

During this time Bank also became involved with pro-democracy causes.

Bank got what he considered a big break in 2013 when he was asked to perform in a play. He felt honored to participate, as it was the biggest performance for a “nobody” such as him. That play was “The Wolf Bride,” in which he played a royal adviser. He would be arrested for it, putting a halt to his studies and shows.

The play’s satire reportedly stretched thin with references to the royal family, leading to the charge under 112 of the Criminal Code, the crime known as lese majeste.

Prosecuting lese majeste was a priority for the junta which seized power in May 2014. Bank lost his freedom with his arrest in August 2014. Deeming offense to the royal family as a threat to national security, the regime sent cases such as Bank’s to military trial. He was convicted by a tribunal in early 2015 and sentenced to 2.5 years in jail. After two years behind bars, he was allowed early release last month on a pardon.

Bank’s conviction struck some as ironic, for just three years earlier he received a government medal recognizing morally upstanding youth. Labeled a “good guy gone bad,” Bank said his different ideology made him a target in prison.

“Certain guards hold different ideologies and tried to make me feel ashamed of myself in front of others, which I didn’t think was appropriate. It hurt me a lot,” Bank said.

He heard of royal defamation convicts being beaten up. But if anything, the surge in arrests and imprisonment of people for lese majeste has meant an influx of such prisoners, so they are singled out less. Harassment and verbal abuse continue, he said.

After walking out of Bangkok’s Remand Prison on Aug. 12, Bank was back one week later on the stage at the launch party of a nonprofit prisoner welfare group. Taking the stage for 15 minutes, he seemed to slip easily back into his stage persona and charm to perform an amusing song and dance.

Afterward, he returned to Khon Kaen to spend some time as a monk and hopes to complete his studies and earn his bachelor’s degree.

One thing certain is that he will continue singing mor lam. And get back to being “the same funny and cheerful person” he once had been.

“I’m not going to flee from the arts and performing arts, because this is who I am,” he said. “If I’m not doing this, I’m already like a dead man.”

Bank urges those who would condemn him for his crime to keep in mind that he’s been punished and served his time.

“If you hate me, please hate the person who had paid his dues in prison,” he said.

Teacher Faces Slap on Wrist for Disfiguring Student

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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19 September 2016, 14:18

Naruedee Jodsanthia, 17, seen before and after she suffered nerve damage caused by a teacher at her school. Original images: Zaii Naruedee / Facebook

NAKHON RATCHASIMA — A teacher who admitted to throwing angrily a coffee mug which disfigured a student’s face will receive no higher penalty than a reduced salary, an education official said Monday.

Preliminary findings of an inquiry into the August incident found Paithoon Klaengkrathok, 58, did not warrant severe punishment such as termination because eyewitnesses said he didn’t intend for the mug hit his victim, 17-year-old Naruedee Jodsanthia. The left side of her face was left partially paralyzed by the assault.

“The investigation found that there was a basis for his offense,” said Somsong Kuen-nguleuam, an education official in Nakhon Ratchasima province, said. “The [board] will now convene a disciplinary investigation of him for nonsevere offenses.”

The results were made public Friday. What lays ahead before Paithoon’s light punishment – if it ever comes – is a long trail of bureaucratic paperwork.

In Thai bureaucracy, infractions are classified as either minor or severe. Punishment for minor offenses range from a one-time pay reduction to permanently lowering monthly salary, Somsong said.

Officials did not recommend a charge of severe misconduct because when Paithoon threw the mug at his students for being rowdy at Chokechaisamakkhee School on Aug. 8, eyewitnesses questioned by the panel said it only hit Naruedee after bouncing off a window frame.

Students on Wednesday re-enact the Aug. 8 confrontation at at Chokechaisamakkhee School in Korat for reporters. According to the students, the mug hit the window frame before bouncing to strike Naruedee Jodsanthia’s face.

Naruedee disputed that account in her previous interviews with the media, including one Thursday in which she said Paithoon deliberately threw the mug at her. As a result, she said, she can’t move move the left side of her face because of a damaged nerve.

Paithoon was to plead guilty or not guilty before a disciplinary panel later Monday afternoon as part of an ongoing and Byzantine review process.

Victim Disappointed
Shortly after Naruedee shared her story last week, Chokechaisamakkhee School suspended Paithoon and then transferred him to another school. Media reports indicate Paithoon is on leave from Boonwattana School.

Paithoon told reporters Sunday that he would not comment on the ongoing investigation, but maintained he meant well for all of his students, including Naruedee. Paithoon couldn’t be reached for comment on Monday.

Naruedee, who had been writing about her case on social media, appeared to have deactivated her Facebook account by Monday. She could not be reached for comment by telephone. Her aunt, Matchima Supaeng, told reporters Friday she was disappointed at the “minor offense” recommended by the inquiry panel.

Matchima said the decision had upset her family and depressed Naruedee.

“Did the student have to die for it to be considered a severe offense?” Matchima told reporters from various news agencies..

Thai University Students Cosplay as Red Guards and Nazis, Again (Photos)

By

Sasiwan Mokkhasen, Staff Reporter

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19 September 2016, 13:30

Silpakorn University students in Bangkok dress in September 2016 as Mao Zedong’s Red Guards from the bloody Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. Photo: Washirawit Santipiboon / Facebook

BANGKOK — Thailand’s university students again showed their zeal for genocidal chic in leaked photos showing seniors from a top art school dressed up as Adolf Hitler and Chinese Red Guards, reportedly for a hazing ritual.

In photos that went viral after being made public by student activist Parit Chiwarak on Sunday, students said to be from the Faculty of Decorative Arts at Silpakorn University mug in uniforms of the Red Guards, the fanatical students organized by Mao Zedong in the mid-1960s who went on a campaign of torture and murder. At least one student cosplayed as Nazi Party leader and German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler.

Whether dressed as German fascists or Chinese communists, the students all raised Nazi salutes in the photos.

Someone answering the phone at Silpakorn’s faculty said Monday that no one was present to speak on the matter. The university has made no statement.

Update: Silpakorn Apologizes for ‘Shameless and Irresponsible’ Sieg-Heiling Students

The photos went viral after they were posted by Silpakorn student Washirawit Santipiboon, who has since made them unavailable.

Parit, a prominent student with a group called Education for the Liberation of Siam, said he was told the costumes were put on for seniors to issue orders to freshmen as part of university hazing rituals known as rub nong.

Humiliation and obedience are common themes to such hazing, a practice which has been criticized for the occasional injuries and deaths which result.

Parit said his the photos were from a day the uniformed seniors were supposed to apply the most pressure on the freshmen before embracing them as part of their group and school.

“If they just dressed for fun, then they are just simply ignorant,” Parit, 18, said Monday. “But it seems they brought dictatorial symbols to use with dictatorial activities.”

Parit said the photos provided another illustration of Thai students’ poor education on global history.

Chulalongkorn University apologized in 2013 after its graduating seniors posed for photos doing the Nazi salute in front of a mural of “superheroes” which included Adolf Hitler. Some parents were aghast in Chiang Mai in 2011 when students at a school there dressed in elaborate SS costumes for an entire Nazi-themed school parade.

Soon after the junta seized power in 2014, it produced a video promoting good values among children in which Hitler made an appearance.

Nazi imagery, while reflexively objectionable to many in Western culture, isn’t as reviled in Thailand, where many are not intimately familiar with the genocide carried out in Europe during World War II.

Instead it is often found on cheeky T-shirts and stickers as a counterculture symbol along the lines of Darth Vader, Che Guevara and Mao.

University ‘Hitler Mural’ Leads To Flurry Of Apologies – And Gag Order

30 Cats Die in Ratchaburi House Fire

By

Asaree Thaitrakulpanich, Staff Reporter

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19 September 2016, 13:11

RATCHABURI— Four lucky cats were counting their remaining lives Monday in a new home after 30 others died in a house fire over the weekend.

A 58-year-old school teacher’s large collection of cats and old books proved a combustible mix in a home with old wiring. Thirty of Somporn Feungfoo’s 40 kitties died Saturday when her home went up in flames.

“By the time we got there, the fire was already raging, and it burned really fast,” said one of the rescue volunteers from the Ruamjai Ratchaburi Volunteer Group. “After the fire was out, part of our team helped to gather the corpses.”

p0102180959p1 — The schoolteacher’s house was packed with cats and flammable materials.

Some of the cats were kept in cages and could not escape. Most suffocated or burned to death. Ten cats managed to escape into the neighboring forest. Of those, only four were found in the aftermath and returned to Somporn.

Somporn lived in another residence and mostly used the old home to house her 40 cats and large collection of old books and papers. Investigators said its decades-old electrical system most likely sparked the fire. The resulting blaze took two hours to bring under control.

Reached for comment Monday, Somporn said she was not home at the time and did not want to discuss what happened.

“You shouldn’t ask how I’m feeling after something like this happened,” she said before terminating the call.

She did say the four cats returned to her had joined the 12 living with her in the newer home. Somporn now has 16 cats living with her.

FBI Questions Car’s Occupants in NYC Blast Probe

By

Associated Press

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19 September 2016, 12:25

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, right, walks on Sunday from the scene of an explosion in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, in New York. Photo: Craig Ruttle / Associated Press

NEW YORK — Agents with the FBI pulled over a car on a highway in Brooklyn on Sunday night and were questioning the vehicle’s occupants in connection with the investigation into the New York City bombing that injured 29 people, authorities said.

Agents stopped “a vehicle of interest in the investigation” at 8:45 p.m. Sunday, according to FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser

She wouldn’t provide further details, but a government official and a law enforcement official who were briefed on the investigation said five people in the car were being questioned at an FBI building in lower Manhattan.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the ongoing investigation.

No one has been charged with any crime and the investigation is continuing, Langmesser said.

The bomb that rocked a bustling Manhattan neighborhood contained residue of an explosive often used for target practice that can be picked up in many sporting goods stores, a federal law enforcement official said Sunday, as authorities tried to unravel who planted the device and why.

The discovery of Tannerite in materials recovered from the Saturday night explosion may be important as authorities probe whether the blast was connected to an unexploded pressure-cooker device found by state troopers just blocks away, as well as a pipe bomb blast in a New Jersey shore town earlier in the day.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, touring the site of the blast in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, known for its vibrant arts scene and large gay community, said there didn’t appear to be any link to international terrorism. He said the second device appeared “similar in design” to the first, but did not provide details.

“We’re going to be very careful and patient to get to the full truth here,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday. “We have more work to do to be able to say what kind of motivation was behind this. Was it a political motivation? A personal motivation? What was it? We do not know that yet.”

Cell phones were discovered at the site of both bombings, but no Tannerite residue was identified in the New Jersey bombremnants, in which a black powder was detected, said the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to comment on an ongoing investigation.

Authorities said the Manhattan bombing and the blast 11 hours earlier at the site of a 5K race to benefit Marines and sailors in Seaside Park, New Jersey, didn’t appear to be connected, though they weren’t ruling anything out. The New Jersey race was cancelled and no one was injured.

Officials haven’t revealed any details about the makeup of the pressure-cooker device, except to say it had wires and a cellphone attached to it.

Technicians in Quantico, Virginia, were examining evidence from the Manhattan bombing, described by witnesses as a deafening blast that shattered storefront windows and injured bystanders with shrapnel in the mostly residential neighborhood on the city’s west side. All 29 of the injured people were released from the hospital by Sunday afternoon.

On Sunday night, investigators examined a suspicious device found in a trash can near a train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey, that forced the suspension of service on the busy Northeast Corridor line.

Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage said two men called police and reported seeing wires and a pipe coming out of the package after finding it at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

Earlier Sunday, a team of five FBI agents searched an Uber driver’s vehicle that had been damaged in the Manhattan blast, ripping off the door panels inside as they examined it for evidence.

The driver, MD Alam, of Brooklyn, had just picked up three passengers and was driving along 23rd Street when the explosion occurred, shattering the car’s windows and leaving gaping holes in the rear passenger-side door.

“It was so loud,” the 32-year-old Alam said. “I was so scared. There was a loud boom and then smoke and I just drove away.”

Alam said he hit the gas and tried to take his passengers to their destination in Queens, but pulled over along Madison Avenue and 39th Street. He went to a local police precinct to file a report for his insurance company and police contacted the FBI.

The explosion left many rattled in a city that had marked the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks only a week earlier and where a United Nations meeting to address the refugee crisis in Syria was scheduled on Monday.

“People didn’t know what was going on, and that’s what was scary,” said Anthony Zayas, an actor who was in the Chelsea neighborhood Saturday night when the bomb went off. “You didn’t know if was coming from the subway beneath you, you didn’t know if there were other bombs, you didn’t know where to go.”

Tannerite, which is often used in target practice to mark a shot with a cloud of smoke and small explosion, is legal to purchase and can be found in many sporting goods stores. Experts said a large amount would be required to create a blast like the one Saturday night, as well as an accelerant or other ignitor.

Police and federal spokespeople wouldn’t comment on the presence of explosive material recovered at the scene.

The bomb in Manhattan appeared to have been placed near a large dumpster in front of a building undergoing construction, another law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation, told the AP. The second device, described by the same official as a pressure cooker with wires and a cellphone attached to it, was removed early Sunday by a bomb squad robot and New York City police blew it up in a controlled explosion Sunday evening, authorities said.

Homemade pressure cooker bombs were used in the Boston Marathon attacks in 2013 that killed three people and injured more than 260.

Officials solicited tips from the public, telling reporters at a news conference in the New York Police Department’s headquarters that they didn’t know who set off the bomb or why.

An additional 1,000 state troopers and members of the National Guard were placed at transit hubs and other points throughout New York City and extra police officials were patrolling Manhattan, officials said. Members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force were investigating the blast along with New York Police Department detectives, fire marshals and other federal investigators.

Meanwhile, a law enforcement official said federal investigators had discounted a claim of responsibility on the social blogging service Tumblr. Investigators looked into it and didn’t consider it relevant to the case, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Story: Jake Pearson, Alicia A. Caldwell

Death Toll in River Ferry Accident Rises to 18, Search Goes On

By

Chayanit Itthipongmaetee, Staff Reporter

-

19 September 2016, 11:44

Rescue workers at the scene on Sunday night.

AYUTTHAYA — Rescue workers pulled three more bodies from the Chao Phraya River on Monday morning as they continued searching for missing passengers from yesterday’s boat accident.

As of Monday morning, 18 people were confirmed dead, 45 injured and nine still missing after a two-level vessel carrying more than 100 passengers crashed into a concrete berm at Wat Sanamchai and then sank late Sunday afternoon.

Most were Muslims returning from a mosque, according to city official Krit Teinmittrapap.

Read: 13 Dead, 39 Injured When Boat Goes Down in Chao Phraya

Boat operator Wirat Chaisirikul told police that he rented the boat in Nonthaburi province and was heading to a mosque in Ayutthaya. Wirat said he wasn’t familiar with the route, so the boat crashed into the berm under strong wind conditions.

Wirat was charged with fatal recklessness, according to the Col. Surapong Thampitak of Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Police Station.

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