BANGKOK — The popular Temple of Dawn (Wat Arun Ratchawararam) in Bangkok has removed a photostand that sneakily charged unsuspecting tourists for taking photos with it.

Many tourists complained they were misled to believe the stand was free because signs that said photos cost 40 baht a piece were small and barely noticeable, said the deputy abbot of the temple, Phra Sakkaya Puttiyawong. 

The stand was operated by a number of locals who live in the nearby community, Phra Sakkaya said.

"Many people and tourists who were affected have complained on social media and sent their complaints to the temple," Phra Sakkaya told Matichon, "It greatly affects the image of the temple, which is an important tourist destination of the country."

He added that the decision to remove the stand was reached in a meeting between the temple administrators, representatives of Bangkok Noi District Office, and the locals who owned the photostand. 

"We will find measures to help the local entrepreneurs find new, appropriate jobs for them in the temple," Phra Sakkaya said.

The Temple of Dawn is one of the most famous landmarks along Bangkok's Chao Phraya River. It is also featured on the back of 10 baht coins. 

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BANGKOK — It was 13-year-old Fon’s* first and last train ride.

She was traveling from Surat Thani province with her two sisters and the boyfriend of her older sister in a sleeping car on train number 174, bound for Bangkok's Hua Lam Phong station on the night of 6 July.

There was a brief blackout, solely in her sleeping car, at 1 am, but none of Fon's companions noticed that anything was wrong until the train reached Nakhon Pathom province the next morning.  When her older sister went to wake Fon up, she was gone.  

The bed sheet from Fon's cot was also missing and her bag had been ransacked. The sisters promptly notified the railway staff, who searched every car after the train arrived at Hua Lamphon station, but to no avail.

News of a missing 13-year-old girl was quickly picked up by TV channels and newspapers, while a campaign to search for Fon was launched on social media. 

This morning, Fon's body was found in a bush next to train tracks in Pranburi district, Prachuap Kiri Khan province, by a police search party. An initial police investigation has revealed that she was raped and then thrown off the train. 

"She had never been on the train before," one of Fon's relatives said tearfully shortly after her body was found. "She asked us to take her because she wanted to have her first ride on train."

Rail employee arrested

Shortly after the train arrived at Hua Lamphong station, railway officials detained several members of the train’s cleaning staff.

This morning one of the employees, Wanchai Saengkhao, confessed that he abducted Fon from her bed while her companions were asleep, raped her, and threw her overboard along with the bedsheet to hide the evidence, police say.

It appears that Mr. Wanchai planned the rape in advance. According to  Fon’s sister, Mr. Wanchai was caught staring at Fon when she was on the train and once approached her bed, claiming that he had left his hat behind in the sleeping car.

An autopsy report of Fon's body, released by Pranburi Hospital today, indicated that the girl suffered an impact wound on the back of her skull and bruises on some parts of her body. 

Pol.Maj.Gen. Thanet Sunthornsuk, a police commander in Prachuap Kiri Khan, said it is not immediately clear whether Fon was still alive when she was thrown overboard. 

Mr. Wanchai has been charged with premeditated murder, rape and theft. He remains under police custody.

Long train of scandals

The rape and murder of Fon has further sullied the reputation of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT), which has been embroiled in scandals for decades. 

The company's diesel-run trains are notorious for their poor maintenance and squalid conditions. Delays as much as one hour are common, while incidents ofderailed trains happened so frequently that the media has lost count.

Now the public is questioning the SRT's ability to recruit staff and screen employees' criminal backgrounds. 

Prapat Chongsanguan, governor of the SRT, insisted that the company has a rigorous safety standard regarding its employees. He said Mr. Wanchai was a temporary staff hired to clean the trains, not a permanent employee.

Nevertheless, Mr. Prapat vowed to set up committees to investigate the incident and the railway officials who were on the train when the rape and murder occured. 

"We will investigate and take disciplinary actions against the officials who neglected in their duties and allowed this incident to happen," Mr. Prapat said today. "We will also convene meetings to prevent such incident in the future."

This is not the first time a train passenger was raped by one of Thai Railway’s employees. In 2001, a woman was raped on a south-bound train by a SRT staff, who was later sentenced to nine years in prison.

In that case the SRT refused the woman's calls for compensation on the grounds that the rape was "a personal issue between the defendant and the victim" and not related to the SRT or its operations. 

*Her name has been changed to protect the privacy of her family. 

Correction: Mr. Wanchai was not charged with attempted murder as reported in the original version of this article. He was charged with premeditated murder.

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BANGKOK (DPA) — A Thai navy commander pushed Tuesday for the country to acquire its first submarines, following the opening of a new submarine centre in Chonburi province, south-east of Bangkok.

"I think [that having submarines] are necessary because it makes our navy more dynamic and it will be useful for self-defence in the Gulf [of Thailand]," said Panu Punyavirocha, commander of Thailand's submarine unit.

The centre, equipped with a German-made submarine simulator, was opened on Monday to train combat-ready personnel in case the country does acquire submarines.

The navy has been petitioning the government to purchase the vessels.

The navy also plans to send officers for training in Germany to gain knowledge about modern submarine warfare.

Critics of the navy's submarine plans point to the navy's purchase of the aircraft carrier Chakri Nareubet, which the navy had also described as necessary for defence.

Due to budget cutbacks the carrier currently sits at anchor year round serving as a museum ship.

BANGKOK (DPA) — A Thai navy commander pushed Tuesday for the country to acquire its first submarines, following the opening of a new submarine centre in Chonburi province, south-east of Bangkok.

"I think [that having submarines] are necessary because it makes our navy more dynamic and it will be useful for self-defence in the Gulf [of Thailand]," said Panu Punyavirocha, commander of Thailand's submarine unit.

The centre, equipped with a German-made submarine simulator, was opened on Monday to train combat-ready personnel in case the country does acquire submarines.

The navy has been petitioning the government to purchase the vessels.

The navy also plans to send officers for training in Germany to gain knowledge about modern submarine warfare.

Critics of the navy's submarine plans point to the navy's purchase of the aircraft carrier Chakri Nareubet, which the navy had also described as necessary for defence.

Due to budget cutbacks the carrier currently sits at anchor year round serving as a museum ship.

BANGKOK — A senior army officer has promised to release the editor of a left-leaning magazine after his attitude has been "re-adjusted."

Thanapol Eiwsakul, longtime editor of Same Sky Magazine, is currently being held at the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok for criticisng the military junta on Facebook.

Col. Burin Thongpraphai, a member of the Royal Thai Army's Office of Judge Advocate, said today that Mr. Thanapol's critical Facebook comments violated a condition he signed before being released from his first bout of military detention. That release form barred Mr. Thanapol from participating in politics or expressing any opinions that "incite unrest.”

Mr. Thanapol was first summoned and briefly detained by the military junta's National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) in late May. Since his release, Mr. Thanapol has taken to his Facebook to regularly air his opinions critical of the military junta.

"Mr. Thanapol is well aware that any political activity violates the condition," Col. Burin said, "Officers found many inappropriate posts on his Facebook."

Under martial law the military can detain individuals for up to seven days, but Mr. Thanapol will likely be released on 9 July, only three days after he was taken into custody, said Col. Burin.

"We have to see his behaviour after we interrogate him and re-adjust his attitude," Col. Burin said. He added that so far, Mr. Thanapol has fully cooperated with the "attitude re-adjustment" process and promised not to commit any further acts that would violate his release conditions.

According to his associates, Mr. Thanapol received a call from an army officer on Sunday who reportedly invited him for a discussion over coffee. When Mr. Thanapol arrived at the cafe however, he was promptly arrested and taken to the Crime Suppression Division.

If the military decides to charge  Mr. Thanapol with violating the NCPO's release conditions, the activist will be tried in military court and could face up to two years in prison.

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BANGKOK (DPA) — The Myanmar government said Monday it was certain that elephants had been sold illegally in Thailand for the tourist trade, following warnings from a wildlife NGO that the trade could resurface unless there were changes to the law.

"It is sure that our wild live elephants have been captured by well-organized smugglers and sold to Thailand through the border," Myanmar's deputy environment minister Aye Myint Maung said in response to a report released earlier by the NGO Traffic.

"But no arrests have been made," he added.

About 80 elephants were illegally captured for sale in Thailand between April 2011 and March 2013, where they are put to work at tourist camps and hotels, the Traffic report said.

At least 60 per cent of the animals trafficked originated from Myanmar, the report said.

The capture of wild elephants is considered a serious threat to the Myanmar's wild population of around 5,000.

Unrest in Myanmar has been exploited by smugglers who "use it well to trade our treasure, like wild elephants, orchids and endangered animal species to neighbouring countries such as China and Thailand," Myint Maung told dpa.

Traffic called on "outdated" Thai legislation and elephant registration systems to be tightened in case the trade reemerges after a crackdown on smuggling in 2012.

"It is suspected that it [the crackdown] has also pushed the trade further underground; that border trafficking locations and elephant holding spots have moved; and that poachers are waiting for attention to fade, and for enforcement efforts to weaken whereupon the trade can resume," the report said.