BANGKOK — The Criminal Court today sentenced a man to nine years in prison for defaming the monarchy in messages posted to Facebook, a sentence commuted to six years by the court.
The court ruled that Piya Chunkittiphan, aka Pongsathorn Banthorn, violated the lese majeste law and the Computer Crime Act for posting defamatory photos deemed offensive to the monarchy between July 27, 2013, and Nov. 28, 2013. In a statement accompanying its verdict, the court said Piya aimed to sabotage public’s respect and reverence towards the monarchy, adding that the images were shared widely on the internet.
Piya, who was never granted bail while facing trial, insisted on his innocence.
Piya’s defense team claimed the prosecution’s only evidence came from one or more smartphone images taken of a Facebook page, according to a summary by legal advocacy group iLaw, which said Piya has been behind bars since his arrest Dec. 11, 2014.
The Facebook account with the offending images belonged to “Pongsathorn Banthorn” and used a profile photo of Piya Chunkittiphan.
However, the court in its verdict said the charges were supported by computer records. The court said he was found to have changed his name and taken another identity in an attempt to evade prosecution.
Although Pongsathorn reportedly claimed to have asked Google to remove the images from Google search, the court said his request came more than a year after the images were posted.
Pongsathorn has yet to decide whether to file an appeal.
The current version of MRT stored value cards Photo: Bangkok Expressway and Metro
BANGKOK — Those with an MRT stored value card in their pocket have until the last day of June to trade it in for the new one needed to ride future routes.
The new cards, which are available now, can be used for the current MRT line and the upcoming Skytrain Purple Line, which will start running in August, and the Blue Line expected by 2021, according to the Bangkok Expressway and Metro Public Co. Ltd.
Cardholders can trade in the old for a new card at any ticket office through the end of June, though the old cards will still work through Halloween. Whatever value is stored on old cards will be transferred to the new without charge.
The Skytrain’s operating company announced Monday it will no longer charge a deposit fee for its Rabbit Card, saying it had received many complaints about the 50 baht deposit.
Promotional art for the Bukruk Urban Arts Festival. Image: Courtesy Bukruk
BANGKOK — Not only are some of the world’s top street artists coming to town to turn walls into wonders, but the Bukruk Urban Arts Festival offers much more to see and do.
Beginning Saturday and running for nine days, here’s what’s hot and why this event is a must-go.
1. Starts with a Party
Although Bukruk’s opening music festival had to move from one side of the river to the other, its unchanged lineup still promises a bounty of musical riches.
Local favorites include Yellow Fang, Apartment Khunpa, Gramaphone Children, DCNXTR and Two Pills After Meal. They’ll be joined by Spanish tropical indie rockers El Guincho, La Fine Equipe’s French trip-hop electro, and the very entertaining the Belgian-Japanese duo Alek et les Japonaises. Straight outta Yangon comes Darko C. and his widely hailed punk actSide Effect.
A 2011 mural in Chicago by Belgian artist “Roa.” Photo: Roa / Facebook
Starting Sunday, talented hands from across Asia and Europe will get busy on their respective walls. Thai favorites “Kult” and “Lolay” are among 13 artists filling entire walls with scenes colorful, surreal and possibly a little creepy. Stop by and check out any of the works as they are painted in streets near the river, around Charoen Krung Road in the Bangrak district Sunday through Jan. 30.
3. Animation Night Keeps Things Moving
A scene from “Sun of a Beach,” a 2013 short animated film by Supinfocom Arles of France.
Could high culture possibly involve kicking back on grass and watching cartoons? If that’s one of your Saturday evening ideals, get thee to The Jam Factory on Jan. 30 for “Animation Night,” one of the shiniest Bukruk highlights.
Cult classic “Fantastic Planet” (1973) will show along with 16 award-winning, selected international animation shorts.
Modern Dog guitarist Maythee Noijinda and Yuree Kensaku will show “12 Cats,” with more underground animated shorts and music videos going into the night.
“12 Cats,” inspired by Thai Fable “Nang Sib Song” (12 ladies), features a story of 12 cats trapped together who have to eat their own kittens to stay alive. 4. Think You Can do it Yourself?
Learn how gonzo animation geek Panop Koonwat crafts his work when he leads a workshop to walk folks step-by-step through his process for creating animation with storytelling tips while French publisher Le Dernier Cri will show everyone how to make proper homemade magazines.
Bring a laptop loaded with Adobe After Effects for the animation workshop. Panop says he’ll try his best to make sure everyone attending walks out with their own animated short film. Both workshopstake place 2pm to 6:30pm on Jan. 29 at TCDC Emporium.
5. Knock Off at the Knack Market
Along with Animation Night, The Jam Factory will host a 70s-themed flea market called The Knack Market. Vendors will be selling handmade products, clothes, street food and anything considered “hip.”
The market takes place starting at 4pm on Jan. 30 and 31 at The Jam Factory.
6. Galleries Full of the Stuff
More than 100 works by 12 Bukruk artists will be shown at the festival’s many partner galleries throughout Bangkok including The Jam Factory, Bridge, Speedy Grandma, Spy Sauce Factory, Serindia Gallery and P. Tendercool. There’s pretty much an opening somewhere every day of the festival.
7. Watch it Done and Take it Home from the Mobile Print Shop
Enter the world of screen printing by the local wonder duo that is The Archivist, whose techniques truly elevate the form with mad craft. The Mobile Print Shop will be set up at gallery openings and other likely places Tuesday through the end of the festival.
Work and zines designed by Bukruk artists will be printed and available for purchase. The print shop will be chugging away 6pm to midnight unless noted otherwise.
Jan. 26: Bridge Art Space
Jan. 27: Serindia Gallery
Jan. 28: P. Tendercool
Jan. 29: Speedy Grandma
Jan. 30: The Jam Factory (4pm – midnight)
Jan. 31: TCDC Grand Postal Office
8. Engage Your Favorite Artists
Meet and hear from several prominent artists such as photojournalist Martha Cooper, media artist Motomichi Nakamura and illustrator Florence Lucas will open up on Jan. 31. The first of several talks starts 2pm at the Central Postal Office building on Charoen Krung in the Bangrak district, the new location of the Thailand Creative and Design Center. Listen to each for 45 minutes, ask questions for 15. 9. Partying is Such Sweet Sorrow
Bukruk ends as it begins: With a crazy outdoor party. Gather in front of the Central Post Office building on Charoen Krung Road starting at 7pm (after the artist talks), to throw down and be entranced as Japanese multimedia artist Motomichi Nakamura blasts the building into delirium with his projected visuals.
All the way from Luxembourg rises DJ Sun Glitters to run the decks along with other music.
The Bukruk Urban Arts Festival runs Saturday through Jan. 31. Check out more information at the websiteor Facebook page.
Nagaraphirom Park opened since 2010 on land belonging to the Crown Property Bureau and the Treasury Department. Photo: Bangkok Metropolitan Administration
BANGKOK — A parking structure will be built atop a small riverside park near Bangkok’s iconic Wat Pho.
The building, expected to accommodate 700 vehicles and improve driving conditions around the old town area, will be built on the Nagaraphirom Park, Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan announced Wednesday. Prawit, a deputy prime minister, oversees a development committee responsible for the historic area.
“The reorganization has already begun,” Prawit said. “Now we are going to build a parking building for cars and vans.”
The plan will go for cabinet approval, Gen. Prawit said, adding that its expected cost was not yet known.
The park only opened in 2010. It occupies about 6,000sqm of riverside land owned by the Crown Property Bureau and Treasury Department on Maharaj Road near the Grand Palace. It offers views of Bangkok's most famous temples: Wat Pho and Wat Arun.
Officials said the plan is part of junta policy to preserve – yet develop – the city’s old town area. The street stalls of the Tha Prachan Amulet Market located a kilometer away were forced out in November for the same reason.
KORAT — The world has a new dinosaur, or least the fossil remains of one, to remember thanks to researchers who discovered it among fossils dug up in Nakhon Ratchasima province.
Standing more than 2 meters tall, the dinosaur was a type of Iguanodon, meaning iguana-tooth, which were large herbivores living in the Cretaceous period.
The remarkable discovery was made by a Thai and Japanese team digging into land located in Korat city since 2007. It’s been named “Sirindhorna khoratensis” in honor of Her Royal Highness Princess Sirindhorn.
The dinosaur is thought to have lived 115 million years ago, according to Pratueng Jintasakul of the Petrified Wood Research Institute, stretched 6 meters in length and weighed 1 ton.
The dinosaur was pieced together from skull and jaw fragments collected over a number of years. Due to the size of its lower jaw, Sirindhorna is different from fossils recovered from the same area in 2011, called Ratchasimasaurus and Siamodon nimngami, Pratueng said.
The newly found fossils of Sirindhorna now rest among other 10,000 ancient remains at the Khorat Fossil Museum in Korat city.
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Bacha Khan University in an Oct. 14 file photo. Photo: Bacha Khan University Charsadda / Facebook
Islamabad — At least 19 people were killed by gunmen who stormed a Pakistani university on Wednesday, hospital officials said.
The attack took place on the campus of Bacha Khan University in Charsadda town in the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, an area that has long been a stronghold of Taliban militants.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was revenge for the death of their fighters at the hands of Pakistani security forces, according to Umer Mansour, a Taliban spokesman.
Security forces killed two of the gunmen and had cornered three others, a police official said.
Earlier reports said there were six gunmen involved in the attack.
At least 1,000 students were on campus when the shooting started, a police official told dpa, asking not to be named.
Soldiers and police were both called in to help, a military statement said.
"Male and female students, security guards and teachers are among the dead," said hospital medic Zubair Ali.
Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharif said the attackers have no faith or religion and condemned their actions.
"We are determined and resolved in our commitment to wipe out the menace of terrorism from our homeland," he said in a statement.
A Buddhist monk with a tiger at Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno, also known as the Tiger Temple, in Kanchanaburi province in a file photo from April 24, 2006. Photo: Barbara Walton / EPA
KANCHANABURI — The latest effort by wildlife authorities to remove tigers from a commercial temple west of Bangkok in Kanchanaburi province was stalled yet again today.
A day after wildlife protection officials reportedly moved to seize more than 100 tigers from Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Yanasampanno, the short-lived operation was postponed Monday, pending “negotiation” with the influential temple abbot, a prominent animal rights activist said.
“The abbot said he wants to inspect the facility to accommodate the tigers first,” said Edwin Wiek, founder of Wildlife Friends of Thailand, of the government animal center to which the tigers would be moved.
Sounding exasperated, Wiek added, “He’s been delaying this again and again.”
Saiyood Pengboonchoo, a lawyer for the Tiger Temple, said this afternoon the temple is willing to give up most of its tigers but declined to say when that will happen. He also said the temple will retain some of the wild animals and has applied for a permit to build a zoo to keep them.
Known to foreign tourists as the “Tiger Temple,” Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Yanasampanno, a monastery in Kanchanaburi province, has long been accused by animal rights activists of mistreating the tigers for commercial gain and even trafficking some of its animals.
Wiek told Khaosod English that his organization has been calling on the authorities to remove the tigers from the temple because of the increasingly crowded condition.
“The problem is overbreeding,” Wiek said today over the phone. “They have too many cubs. Right now there are over 150 tigers. Some are missing, too. The national park must take action.”
Since it began operating about 20 years ago, the temple went from having a few big cats and breeding them prolifically. It promotes itself as an spiritual conservation center protecting the animals. Tourists pay for the opportunity to pose for photographs with the tigers inside the temple, which even publishes its own magazine.
According to Wiek, the temple’s operations violate CITES, an international treaty on wildlife to which Thailand is a signatory, which bans commercial breeding of protected wild animals such as tigers. The Tiger Temple currently charges for entry.
Last year, Thailand faced trade sanctions for failing to comply with its obligations under CITES for its ivory trade.
To comply with CITES, Wiek said the authorities must also have Tiger Temple administrators sign an agreement not to breed more tigers. “Otherwise, the rest of the tigers would just breed, and things will be the same again.”
A reporter’s calls to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation were referred to Wiek’s organization.
All previous attempts to remove the tigers from Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Yanasampanno have failed, including one in May last year. Wiek believes this is due to the influence wielded by the temple and its abbot, Phra Wisutthisarathen.
The activist said he heard that local wildlife authorities embarked on this most recent operation because they were ordered to do so by the new Minister of Natural Resource and Environment, Gen. Surasak Karnjanarat, who took office in August.
Asked whether he believes the operation next Monday will succeed in removing the tigers, Wiek was skeptical but determined.
“Well, this is Thailand. Anything can happen. But we insist the tigers must go. They must go next Monday, or the next Monday, or in the next life,” he said.
Last April, pressure for the authorities to inspect and shut down the Tiger Temple was heightened after a former veterinarian alleged it had sold at least three of its big cats to buyers in Laos.
Asked about this allegation, Wiek insisted his organization has evidence to prove the transaction, but added that he’s not aware of any new trafficking between the temple and alleged buyers since the news came up in April.
“The temple probably knows it’s being watched from all sides,” he said.
Additional reporting Chayanit Itthipongmaetee
Update: This story has been updated with a response from temple lawyer Saiyood Pengboonchoo. Related stories:
BANGKOK — The Junta approved 20 billion baht on Tuesday to improve internet broadband in the kingdom, drawing criticism from internet freedom advocates it will be used to develop its controversial “single gateway” project.
Government spokesman Maj. Gen. Sansern Kaewkamnerd yesterday said that 15 billion baht will be spent to expand the domestic high-speed internet network in rural areas, where the private sector is not interested in investing. That fits the “community internet” initiative recently touted by the Ministry of information and Communication Technology as a means to promote economic capacity and reduce unequal access to the internet.
The other 5 billion baht would be used to develop the single gateway, which the government has promoted as an economic measure to position Thailand as the “digital hub” of the ASEAN community.
The first phase of expanding the internet broadband across the country was expected to start in March, while Sansern said Thailand hoped its gateway project would make Thailand a link between Asia and the West begin in 2017.
Both state-owned TOT and CAT Telecom public companies will be responsible for the project.
The move was immediately criticized by internet rights group Citizen Against Single Gateway as disingenuous, with members suspecting all the money would go toward achieving the junta’s goal of gaining control over the online world.
“What is the exact use of a nationwide community internet, when now almost every house can access 3G and 4G?” wrote Banchong Sanpinta in Thai on Facebook. “Where will the 20 billion baht go?”
Since September, advocates for a free net in Thailand have campaigned against the military government’s longstanding desire to rule the web by routing all internet traffic through a single channel it can monitor and censor. That campaign has led to attacks on government websites to highlight the vulnerabilities of such a system, even drawing the involvement of Anonymous hacktivists.
Some of Citizen Against Single Gateway’s followers on Facebook disagreed that the 20 billion would be used to implement the gateway project.
“I think the budget is too low to be for the single gateway,” wrote Facebook user Sakisaka Saki Nadashiko. “I think it’s just another nice way to waste the money.”
Islamic State militant in a video later identified as British national Mohammed Emwazi.
BEIRUT — The extremist militia Islamic State on Tuesday confirmed the death of one of its executioners, a Kuwaiti-born British national nicknamed Jihadi John by Western media.
He was killed in a U.S. drone strike Nov. 12 in the Islamic State stronghold of al-Raqqa, Syria, the group said in its English-language propaganda magazine Dabiq.
The Pentagon on Nov. 13 had said it had a "great deal of confidence" that Mohammed Emwazi, who became infamous from beheading videos in which he spoke with a London accent, was "evaporated" in a strike against a car.
Emwazi first surfaced in a video in the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley in August 2014.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Emwazi participated in the videos showing the killings of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff, U.S. aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto and other Islamic State hostages.
In a three-page article, Dabiq praised Emwazi as a "martyr" who had fought in the Syrian civil war since 2012 beginning with the al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front.
Meanwhile, scores of Syrian regime forces and Islamic State militants were killed during clashes between the two sides over the past two days in eastern Syria, a monitoring group said Tuesday.
"At least 120 Syrian soldiers and their allies were killed; 40 of them were executed when Islamic State militants attacked the regime-held area of al-Baghaliyeh," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
The Britain-based monitoring group said that 70 militants from Islamic State were killed, 28 of them suicide attackers.
In recent weeks, Islamic State strongholds in Syria have been the target of intensified airstrikes separately mounted by a U.S.-led alliance and Russia.
Russian officers and engineers arrived in Qamishli, one of only two areas in the mainly Kurdish-held north-east, where government forces retain a presence, to study the possible expansion of the airport there.
Russia started airstrikes in Syria in support of the government in September. Moscow has supported the Kurds against rebel forces in recent weeks.
In al-Hassakeh province in the north-east, the Observatory said that U.S. forces have almost finished preparing an airbase that could be used for U.S. planes to strike Islamic State bases across Syria.
American technicians have been working for the past few weeks to expand and prepare the agricultural airport at Rumeilan with a runway specialized for warplanes.
The area is controlled by Kurdish forces which have been Washington's main ally on the ground against the extremist militia.
The airbase will also serve as a headquarter for Americans who have entered Syrian territory, the Observatory said.
In October, the U.S. announced that a contingent of less than 50 special forces would be sent to Syria to coordinate with local forces against Islamic State.
Meanwhile, new humanitarian deliveries were made Monday to the pro-regime Shiite villages of Foua and Kefraya – besieged by hardline Islamist rebels since April – in north-western Syria, and Madaya on the outskirts of Damascus.
Reports of starvation in Madaya, a mountain town with 40,000 people near the Lebanese border and besieged by regime forces, triggered a global outcry.
The UN says nearly 400,000 of the 4.5 million people living in what it terms "hard-to-reach" areas in Syria are living under siege.
More than 250,000 people are estimated to have been killed in Syria's conflict since it started in 2011.
Peace talks are to be held next week in Geneva, but the US expressed skepticism that the meetings will begin as planned Jan. 25.
"Quite a bit of work" is still needed to make the meeting occur, State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
The United Nations on Monday had yet to issue invitations for the Syria peace talks because key countries have not agreed on who should represent the opposition, a U.N. spokesman said.
The planets Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter shown in alignment. Graphic: National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand.
BANGKOK — Look up at the night sky and be awed by the alignment of five planets during the next 30 days.
Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter will be visible to the naked eye throughout the country Jan. 20 to Feb. 20, according to a statement released by the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand.
The rare alignment will be visible just before sunrise each day, institute deputy director Saran Poshyachinda said in the statement The moon will pass through the row of the planets during those hours, making for a truly “beautiful astronomical phenomenon,” he said.
According to Saran, the last time such an alignment could be seen from Thailand was 11 years ago in December 2004.
He added the celestial spectacle will have not have any impact on Earth and humanity, an assertion unlikely to discourage the legions of amateur Nostradumuses from forecasting doom.
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Enter the world of screen printing by the local wonder duo that is The Archivist, whose techniques truly elevate the form with mad craft. The 
