BANGKOK — A man was found dead Tuesday after livestreaming his suicidal via Facebook Live.
Charoen Chimphuk was found dead inside an apartment in Soi Phaholyothin 48 the morning after he filmed himself hanging himself in a streaming video running about 30 minutes.
Sangrawee Omdee, 24, his wife, told police she rushed to the residence after seeing the 30-year-old was preparing to hang himself through the live broadcast streamed via his personal account on 11:46pm.
Titled “Just a man going to die,” the live video showed a calm Charoen making preparations for about 19 minutes to hang himself from a ceiling fan. He is mostly silent the entire time apart from some comments about his family.
“I have nothing left,” he says at one point.
His body remains suspended motionless for another dozen minutes or so. The video is still available but a content warning had been added by Facebook by Tuesday afternoon.
“His wife was not suspicious about his death and believes it was a suicide,” said police Col. Amnat Intharasuan of Bang Khen Police Station. “Though the case is being investigated by the police’s office of forensic science, as it must be.”
Sangrawee told police she has lived with Charoen for five years, and the two have a 3-year-old daughter. She recently found out he was having an affair with another woman, so she had left him.
Sangrawee said the room where Charoen hanged himself was where he went to see the other woman.
Police said they did not find the live video suspicious and believe Charoen hanged himself of his own free will.
BANGKOK — Harvey Keitel and Michael Caine are a pair of faltering creatives while a more surreal couple scour an empty world to repair a broken friend in films to show at next week’s Italian Film Festival.
Seven films include three contenders for the 2015 Palme d’Or will bring the best of Italian cinema to audiences Sept. 13 through 18 at EmQuartier.
In “Youth,” Caine and Keitel are men at the end of life’s accomplishments on vacation in the Swiss Alps where they confront the struggle between age and youth, life and death. The English-language dramedy by Paolo Sorrentino got a positive response after its Cannes premiere was nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards.
A troubled female director melts down on the set in “My Mother,” which also received a warm welcome as a Palme d’Or entry.
Things take an avante garde turn in 2015 dark fantasy “The Bear Tales,” with two lonely, surreal figures journeying through a world abandoned by humans in their quest to reanimate a torn teddy bear. The story is adapted from famous fables such as Cinderella, Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty. It stars Salma Hayek.
Ferdinando Cito Filomarino’s first feature “Antonia” is a biopic about the transient life of Antonia Pozzi who after his death has become one of the most important Italian poets of the 20th century. Lead actress Linda Caridi will attend the opening ceremony of the festival.
For those looking for a laugh, “An Italian Name” unfolds over the course of a dinner between old friends who get tangled up on politics and relationships while debating what to name a coming child. “The Repairman” portrays the rambling life of a failed engineer who earns a living by fixing coffee machines.
For some controversy, check out “Me, Myself and Her,” a love story between two women and their struggles to find true identity.
Tickets range from 150 baht to 300 baht and can be reserved via the Major Cineplexwebsite.
The festival runs Sept. 13 – 18 at EmQuartier’s CineArt theater. The full schedulecan be found online. All films show in Italian with English subtitles except “Youth” which is in English. EmQuartier can be reached via skywalk from BTS Phrom Phong.
A rendering by the European Space Agency showing its Philae lander on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
BERLIN — Europe’s Rosetta space probe has located its lost Philae lander, wedged in a “dark crack” on a comet, the European Space Agency said Monday.
Rosetta’s camera finally captured images on Friday of the lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, weeks before the probe’s own mission ends, the agency said. The pictures showing the lander’s body and two of its three legs were taken as Rosetta passed within 2.7 kilometers of the surface.
After being launched in 2004, Rosetta took 10 years to accelerate and catch up with comet 67P. In November 2014 it released Philae, achieving the first landing of a spacecraft on a comet.
Philae bounced after its initial touchdown and its precise location on the comet couldn’t be pinned down until now, though its general vicinity was known.
After sending data to Earth for three days its battery ran out and it went into hibernation, only to recharge enough as thecomet came closer to the sun to communicate briefly with Rosetta in mid-2015.
Comet lander Philae can be seen in this photo taken Friday by Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera from a distance of 2.7 kilomters of the Comet 67P/Churyumov/Gerasimenko. Image: European Space Agency
ESA plans to crash Rosetta into the comet Sept. 30, because the probe is unlikely to survive lengthy hibernation in orbit as the comet heads away from the sun.
Data from Rosetta and Philae have already improved scientists’ understanding of the nature of comets and the role they played in the early universe. Analyzing the data fully is expected to keep researchers busy for years.
“We were beginning to think that Philae would remain lost forever,” said Patrick Martin, ESA’s Rosetta mission manager. “It is incredible we have captured this at the final hour.”
Rosetta project scientist Matt Taylor said that locating Philae provides missing information “needed to put Philae’s three days of science into proper context.”
Rescue workers on March 16 show caning marks on a 4-year-old girl’s body who was reportedly beaten by her stepfather and mother in Pathum Thani province.
BANGKOK — Tied to a tree and beaten unconscious. Slapped in the skull so hard an ear is partially sliced off. Forced to inhale smoke from a pot of hot coals mixed with spices.
Those may sound like medieval torture or Khmer Rouge interrogation techniques, but they were punishments some users of the Pantip webforum said they endured as children after upsetting their parents.
While commonplace punishments such as caning and slapping were expected, some methods sounded disturbingly sadistic.
“I skipped class when I was in Grade 5. My teacher came to see me at home. After the teacher left, dad tied my hands to a mango tree, then he used an electric cable to whip me until the coating came off, leaving only the copper. After I passed out and woke up, he whipped me again until I passed out yet again. When I woke up, mom had already taken me to a doctor,” wrote user Smarter Than a Dog, Funnier Than a Horse.
Of course the stories are impossible to verify, but the pattern of accounts, many provided by regular users, provided a narrative of the abuse which passes as fierce discipline.
User Confused With Myself wrote about being slapped until “a piece of my ear was sliced off … “
The offense?
“I didn’t come home to eat lunch at home,” the user wrote. “I was playing Legos at my friend’s place.”
A report released by Ministry of Public Health said over 23,000 cases of violence against women and children were recorded by state hospitals throughout the country in 2015. Many of those incidents were domestic violence, the report said.
“When I was young, I was really stubborn. For non-serious offenses , mom would cane me with a galangal plant. For serious offenses, mom would fill coconut shells with red hot coals mixed with a bits of coconut and dry chili. And she would force my head down to smoke it. It was so painful to my eyes and nose. As for my dad, he would cane me with stingray tails,” wrote user Piglet Looking at the Moon.
User Nighttime Circus wrote that the memory remains strong and led to a depression that is still suffered today.
“What stuck in my memory was when I hurried up with … writing because I wanted to go out and play, so my handwriting was not pretty. My booklet was torn to pieces in front of me,” Nighttime Circus wrote. “I cried so hard. It was seared into my memory. I was also caned because I didn’t write with my right hand like other people. I was left-handed.”
Crocodile of the Nile recounted being wrongly accused of stealing a look at a housemaid taking a shower:
“So dad used a metal badminton racket to slap me repeatedly, not caring where it hit me. I and my sibling were hurt; we were scared. We ended up running away to live with our grandmom who lived close by. I think I was in grade 5 or 6.”
Many comments end with disclaimers that they still love and respect their parents, despite the cruel and unusual treatment.
Corporal punishment is still widespread, even though legal protection of children rights has progressed much in recent decades, said social worker Sappasit Khumprapan.
“First of all, it’s illegal,” said Sappasit, director of Centre for the Protection of Children’s Rights. “Secondly, it doesn’t solve anything … Physical punishment such as beating doesn’t teach children what they should or should not do.”
Section 26 of the 2003 Child Protection Act outlaws any “action or inaction that is considered a physical or mental cruelty to children.”.
Instead of resorting to violence, Sappasit said Thai parents should find out why their children fail them in certain tasks.
“For example, your kid doesn’t do homework. You have to find out, was it because of addiction to video games? … Did they have a problem with self-motivation? Or was it because they couldn’t understand the classroom instruction?” Sappasit said.
Some comments in the Pantip thread drew a link between brutal punishment of children and the violence prevalent in the society.
“I’m not surprised that many Thai kids grew up with issues of fear, lack of confidence … and they’re willing to be exploited and taken advantage of while cowering in fear,” wrote user Please Chase Me Off to Bed. “It’s because you are raised with violence. A violence that you don’t even know is violence.”
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, center, arrives Tuesday at the National Convention Center for scheduled bilateral meetings with ASEAN leaders on the sidelines of the 28th ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Laos. Photo: Bullit Marquez / Associated Press
VIENTIANE — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte expressed regret Tuesday over his “son of a bitch” remark while referring to President Barack Obama, in a rare display of contrition by a politician whose wide arc of profanities has unabashedly targeted world figures including the pope and the U.N. chief.
In a statement read out by his spokesman, Duterte said that while his “strong comments” in response to certain questions by a reporter “elicited concern and distress, we also regret it came across as a personal attack on the U.S. president.”
Duterte had made the intemperate remarks Monday before flying to Laos, where he is attending a regional summit. He had been scheduled to meet Obama separately, but Obama indicated he had second thoughts.
On Tuesday, Duterte said both sides mutually agreed to postpone the meeting.
Even though Duterte’s latest comment does not amount to an apology, the expression of regret is unusual for the tough-talking former mayor, who is unapologetic about his manner of speech and liberally peppers his casual statements with profanities such as “son of a bitch” and “son of a whore.”
But perhaps Duterte’s aides realized it would be unwise to take on the most powerful official in the world, and there would be a price to pay for insulting the president of the United States.
The U.S. is one of the Philippines’ largest trading partners and a key security ally in its fight against terrorism in the country’s south. Manila also needs Washington’s help in dealing with a more assertive China in the disputed South China Sea.
Duterte likely had realized his folly by the time he arrived in the Laotian capital of Vientiane on Monday night.
Speaking to reporters here, he said, “I do not want to quarrel with the most powerful country on the planet,” but immediately took his typical combative approach by saying: “Washington has been so liberal about criticizing human rights, human rights and human rights. How about you? I have so many questions also about human rights to ask you. So … people who live in glass houses should not” throw stones at others.
He said if the White House had problems with him, it could have sent him a diplomatic note and let him respond. “There’s a protocol for that,” Duterte said. “You just cannot shoot a statement against the president of any country.”
But by Tuesday, he had done a complete U-turn in the tone of his statement.
“We look forward to ironing out differences arising out of national priorities and perceptions, and working in mutually responsible ways for both countries,” the statement said.
The flap over Duterte’s remarks started when a reporter asked him how he intends to explain the extrajudicial killings of drug dealers to Obama. More than 2,000 suspected drug dealers and users have been killed since Duterte launched a war on drugs after taking office on June 30.
In his typical foul-mouthed style, Duterte responded: “I am a president of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony. I do not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody. You must be respectful. Do not just throw questions. Putang ina, I will swear at you in that forum,” he said, using the Tagalog phrase for “son of a bitch.”
Duterte has previously cursed Pope Francis and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
“Who is he (Obama) to confront me?” Duterte said, adding that the Philippines had not received an apology from the United States for misdeeds committed during its colonization of the country.
He pointed to the killing of Muslim Moros more than a century ago during a U.S. pacification campaign in the southern Philippines, blaming the wounds of the past as “the reason why (the south) continues to boil” with separatist insurgencies.
Last week, Duterte said he was ready to defend his bloody crackdown on illegal drugs, which has sparked concern from the U.S. and other countries.
Duterte said he would demand that Obama allow him to first explain the context of his crackdown before engaging the U.S. president in a discussion about the deaths.
Duterte has had a troublesome relation with the United States, questioning its inability to stop genocidal killings in the Middle East and Africa, and citing U.S. police shootings of black Americans that have set off protests.
He has also taken on a more conciliatory position with U.S. rival China. Philippines-China ties were strained under Duterte’s predecessors due to territorial conflicts in the South China Sea. Duterte proclaimed early in his presidency that he would pursue a foreign policy not dependent on the United States.
Former Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, under whose watch U.S.-Philippine relations blossomed, expressed disappointment over the aborted meeting with the U.S.
“An invaluable occasion to have our leaders meet for the purpose of discussing how to strengthen our comprehensive areas of cooperation would have been a golden opportunity,” del Rosario said.
Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, center, who chairs the recently created Rakhine State Advisory Commission, escorted by local authorities as he arrived September at the airport in Sittwe, Myanmar. Photo: Esther Htusan / Associated Press
SITTWE, Myanmar — More than 1,000 Buddhists in a Myanmar state wracked by religious and ethnic strife protested Tuesday’s arrival of former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, saying the Ghanaian is meddling in the country’s affairs by leading a government-appointed commission to find solutions to the conflict.
The Southeast Asian country set up the commission last month to help find solutions to “protracted issues” in western Rakhine state, where human rights groups have documented widespread abuses by majority Rakhine Buddhists against minority Rohingya Muslims.
The state’s dominant Arakan National Party and the Rakhine Women Network led the protest about 300 meters (yards) from the airport in Sittwe, the Rakhine capital, where Annan and other members of the Rakhine Advisory Commission arrived Tuesday morning. As Annan’s car passed, the crowd shouted, “Dismiss the Kofi Annan-led Rakhine Advisory Commission now.”
“We came here because we don’t want that foreigner coming to our state,” said May Phyu, a local Rakhine Buddhist resident. “I don’t know exactly what this group is and what they are doing, but I came here to protest as I don’t like them to come here.
“I cannot accept them talking about the Rakhine and kalar case in our state,” said protester Soe Thein. “Kalar” is a derogatory word used in Myanmar to refer to Muslims.
Many Buddhists in Rakhine and across Myanmar consider Rohingya to be Bangladeshis living in the country illegally, though the ethnic group has been in Myanmar for generations. Hundreds of Rohingya were killed and tens of thousands forced to flee their homes in 2012 unrest in Rakhine state, and many continue to be confined to squalid camps there.
“We are here to help provide ideas and advice,” Annan said at the Rakhine state government office, where he met government and police officials, community leaders and members of nongovernmental organizations.
“To build the future, the two major communities have to move beyond decades of mistrust and find ways to embrace, share values of justice, fairness and equity,” he said. “Ultimately, the people of Rakhine state must charge their own way forward.”
Hundreds of demonstrators hold banners and shout slogans in protest of the arrival of former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday. Photo: Esther Htusan / Associated Press
Before Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s government created the commission, her international reputation as a Nobel Peace Prize-winning democracy icon had been diminished by what some have viewed as her inaction on the Rohingya issue. Her government still does not even use the word “Rohingya.”
“You will see for yourself all the problems on the ground now,” Suu Kyi, officially Myanmar state counselor and foreign minister, told Annan and other commission members at a news conference Monday. “You will be able to assess for yourself the roots of the problems itself, not in one day, not in one week. But I am confident that you will get there, that you will find the answers because you are truly intent on looking for them.”
The commission is to address human rights, ensuring humanitarian assistance, rights and reconciliation, establishing basic infrastructure and promoting long-term development plans.
During their six-day Rakhine trip, the commission will visit the Rohingya camps and meet members of political and religious groups. But the Arakan National Party said it will not meet or work with the commission.
“Rakhine state is in Myanmar and our country has its own sovereignty and there is no way we can accept a commission that is formed by foreigners,” ANP official Aung Than Wai said Tuesday.
Sondhi Limthongkul is taken to prison Tuesday in Bangkok after the Supreme Court upheld the verdict to imprison him 20 years.
BANGKOK — Years of legal maneuvering ended with one-time Yellowshirt leader Sondhi Limthongkul sent directly to prison Tuesday morning after the Supreme Court ruled he must serve his sentence without it being suspended.
The final verdict upheld a former Appeals Court ruling that Sondhi; founder of Manager Media Group Co., Ltd.; was guilty for creating a fraudulent report under which Manager guaranteed a billion baht loan in 1997 for another company in which he also held a stake.
Sondhi and three other executives were convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2012 but had been fighting through the appeals process until today’s decision.
The courts found the four forged the report to obtain the loan without seeking approval from Manager’s board when they guaranteed a 1.08 billion baht loan from Krung Thai Bank to The M Group Co., Ltd.
They also kept the shareholders of Manager Group Co., Ltd. in the dark by not reporting to the Stock Exchange of Thailand that Manager had guaranteed the loan.
The M Group later defaulted on the loan, forcing Manager Group to repay the massive debt.
The Supreme Court said the executives’ appeal was without merit because they used the same false report six times to acquire loans, illustrating a clear intent to defraud on the part of the defendants.
Sondhi, the founder of prominent media group Manager, led the People’s Alliance for Democracy, or PAD, whose street demonstrations culminated in shutting down Suvarnabhumi International Airport in 2008 to unseat a government aligned with ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
Sondhi played a lead role in the anti-Thaksin movement and rallied against corruption.
He was charged for occupying the airport and shutting down parliament, but the trial against him and other Yellowshirt leaders has hardly moved forward after eight years.
U.S. President Barack Obama waves upon his arrival at Wattay International Airport in Vientiane, Laos on Monday. Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe / Associated Press
VIENTIANE — President Barack Obama on Monday became the first sitting U.S. president to step foot in the isolated Southeast Asian nation of Laos, opening a three-day visit meant to rebuild trust and close a dark chapter in the shared history between the two countries.
Obama is one of several world leaders coming to the country of nearly 7 million people, where the one-party communist state tightly controls public expression but is using its moment in the spotlight as host of the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to open up to outsiders.
Under a steady, tropical rain, Obama arrived late Monday and began a full day of ceremony and diplomacy Tuesday morning with a meeting with Laotian President Bounnhang Vorachit. The president was greeted by a military band and a display of the troops at the presidential palace.
The visit comes during what is probably Obama’s final trip as president to Southeast Asia, a region that has enjoyed intense attention from the U.S. during his tenure. Obama’s frequent visits to oft-ignored corners of the Asia Pacific have been central to his strategy for countering China’s growing dominance in the region. By bolstering diplomatic ties in Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar, the Obama administration has declared it wants to compete for influence and market access in China’s backyard.
In Laos, Obama will wrestle with the ghosts of past U.S. policies.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the U.S. rained bombs on Laotian villages and the countryside as America’s war with Vietnam spilled across the border. The Laotian government estimates that more than 2 million tons of ordnance were released during more than 500,000 missions — one bomb every eight minutes for nine years.
An estimated 80 million cluster bombs did not explode, leaving tennis ball-sized “bombies” littering the impoverished countryside to wound and kill unsuspecting people.
In his meeting with Vorachit, Obama quickly acknowledged the “challenging history.” He is expected to announce additional aid to clean up unexploded ordnance, while the Laotian government is expected to offer help in accounting for missing and dead U.S. service members.
Obama said Monday in China, before he departed for Laos, that diplomatic work on war legacy issues will be “a show of good faith on the part of the country and a way for us to move into a next phase of a relationship.”
He cited Vietnam as the model. Aides said Obama’s visit will probably echo a stop in Hanoi, Vietnam, in May, when the president declared he was “mindful of the past, mindful of our difficult history, but focused on the future.”
U.S. President Barack Obama walks down the steps from Air Force One upon his arrival Monday at Wattay International Airport in Vientiane. Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe / Associated Press
In both countries, Obama benefits from not carrying baggage that might have complicated his message. Too young to have served in the Vietnam war, Obama serves as a generational page turner — eager to speak directly to those too young to remember the troubled past.
In Laos, as he has across Southeast Asia, he’ll hold a town-hall-style event for young people. The White House said he’ll encourage Laos’ slow political opening and budding entrepreneurial culture.
Obama will be speaking to people like 33-year-old Anysay Keola, who remembers his mother’s stories of running and hiding from the bombs and of memorizing a phrase roughly translating to: “The U.S. dropped the bomb on us.”
But Keola, an entrepreneur and filmmaker and part of Vientiane’s growing creative class, also grew up on American music and fashion. The war’s ill will faded long ago, and his friends are excited about Obama’s arrival but not necessarily for political reasons.
“He is perceived as like a celebrity,” Keola said. “It’s just on the surface: ‘Ooh, Obama’s coming. Ooh, big plane.’ Or things like that. Or his Cadillac car is here. Those are the things that people share and talk about.”
While the U.S. is known as a rich country with an outsized cultural influence, China, by contrast, is seen as the huge neighbor helping to spur this small nation’s robust growth. Massive Vientiane construction sites come adorned with Mandarin script. China has committed to financing a $7 billion high-speed railroad to bisect the country.
Though Vorachit is seen as edging closer to Vietnam than to China, the country has managed a diplomatic two-step this year. As chair of the Southeast Asian nations’ group, it has projected neutrality in other countries’ disputes with China over the South China Sea.
Ladda Kongdach performs in “Parallel [between the lines].” Photo: Yeongu Kim / Courtesy
BANGKOK — A performing artist portrays the essence of a parallel universe through body movement and expression in a work launching Friday.
“Parallel [between the lines]” is a solo movement created and performed by Ladda Kongdach, who said she’s been interested in parallel worlds since childhood and often wondered what would happen if another version of herself chose a path other than the one she has taken.
“When I was a kid, I believed I had a twin, but that thought faded as I grew up and reality dawned on me,” Ladda said. “Still, I feel related to the parallel universe theory, as we might have a twin somewhere in the universe. We often have to choose different paths which turn our lives around. So, I want to express the possibilities of the decision through my performance.”
The 45-minute show consists of simple body movements and expressions, along with a human-sized puppet whose mask is molded from Ladda’s face. The 33-year-old artist creates a sense of parallels in the clash between body and mind, puppet and puppeteer and the divergent paths of unrequited lovers.
Ladda said she is inspired by her life experiences. With seven years experience in theatre, Ladda started directing her own three years ago to explore the use of puppets and body language in expressing a meaningful insight.
The performance was part of “Dancing in the Lake,” which premiered last month in Seoul.
“Although the work is personal, the feelings presented are mutual. The audience doesn’t have to know my story, but through movement, with no use of words, people can sense happiness or sadness and what I’m trying to convey,” said Ladda.
Tickets are 400 baht and can be reserved via the Facebook event page or by phone at 081-929 4246 and 083-123-6331.
Performances of “Parallel” start at 8pm running Friday through to Sept. 20, (except Wednesday and Thursday) at Crescent Moon Space in the Pridi Banomyong Institute. The venue is a 10-minute walk from BTS Thong Lo’s exit. No. 3.
The aftermath of a bombing attack near a school in Narathiwat’s Tak Bai district this morning which killed two people including a young schoolgirl.
NARATHIWAT — A weaponized motorcycle exploded in front of a school in Narathiwat’s Tak Bai district this morning, killing two people including a 4-year-old schoolgirl, police said.
The bombing appeared to mark a recent trend in separatist violence of more indiscriminate targeting of civilians, coming just two weeks after an ambulance was used in the fatal car bombing of a hotel in Pattani province.
A police report released to the media said the motorcycle was parked close to where a group of police officers was standing guard in front of Ban Taba School.
The report said a man and his daughter, a 4-year-old kindergartener enrolled at the school, were killed in the attack. Eight people were also injured.
Spokesman Pramote Prom-in of the Internal Security Operation Command condemned the bomb attack as an inhumane act that disregarded civilians, even young children.
“I’d like to ask [everyone] to help monitor and condemn the behavior of the perpetrators as much as possible,” Col. Pramote said.
Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch also described the bombing as a “war crime” in a tweet.
More than 6,500 people, many of whom were civilians, have died in the southern border region since secessionist violence broke out there in 2004, according to Deep South Watch.
On Aug. 23 suspected insurgents converted a stolen ambulance into a car bomb and left it to explode in front of a Pattani hotel, killing two people.
A bomb also struck a passenger train in Pattani province on Saturday, killing a railway employee and disrupting southbound trains for hours.
