(The Straits Times)
CHIANG MAI — He stops in mid speech at the sound of passing cars, glancing warily at the small lane outside the Chiang Mai café. With fingers clasped around an unlit cigarette, he mutters, as if in reminder to himself: "I plan to live my life normally."
Yet life for sociology lecturer Kengkij Kitirianglarp has hardly been normal since the military seized power on May 22.
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TOKYO (DPA) — The high suicide rate among young Japanese has made it the leading cause of death for the age group for the seventh straight year, the government said Tuesday.
Among Japanese people aged 15 to 39, suicide is still the biggest single killer, and was responsible for more than 50 per cent of deaths among men in their 20s, a government white paper said.
"We will examine the reasons behind it and take appropriate action," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.
The government said it needs to step up measures to deal with bullying and online suicide announcements.
The total number of suicides declined 2.1 per cent to 27,283 for the fourth consecutive year of fall, the survey showed, making an average of some 75 suicides per day.
"The number of suicides has fallen because of the ongoing economic recovery," Suga said.
CHIANG MAI — The abbot of the City Pillar Shrine in Chiang Mai has ordered local artists to alter the angels painted on the shrine’s walls by swapping their traditional swords with modern weapons.
"In the ancient time, these angels were equipped with ancient weapons like spears, swords, and knives," said the abbot, Phra Kru Suwattana Mettakhun. "But we decided to give them M16 rifles, M79 grenade launchers, handguns, and grenades, so they can have diverse choice of weapons."
"These are the weapons that are up to date," the abbot said.
The new weapons were added to the four Guardian Angels, who flank the entrance to the City Shrine, during a recent renovation of the sanctuary.
The murals chronicle the legend of the construction of the City Pillar and Phra That Jedi Luang Temple, another prominent religious site of Chiang Mai province, said Phra Kru Suwattana.
"We aim to restore and strengthen every part [of the shrine], so that it will be a monument and a sacred site that stands alongside Chiang Mai and the nation in many years to come," the abbot said.
Although the renovation has not been entirely completed, temple-goers and tourists are already allowed to visit the shrine and take photographs with the modern-equipped Guardian Angels. However, women are not permitted to enter the shrine due to a local custom.
According to the chronicles, the City Pillar was built in 1296 under the reign of King Meng Rai of the then-Lanna Kingdom.
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BANGKOK — Police say the woman abducted by undercover agents at the anti-coup protest in Bangkok on Sunday has been handed over to the military.
However, the police have no details about her current whereabouts or whether the military has pressed any charges against her, said Pol.Col. Chaiya Kongsap, commander of the Lumpini Police Station in Bangkok.
"We have no information whatsoever," Pol.Col. Chaiya told Khaosod Englishtoday. "The soldiers were already waiting for her when [the police] took her to the police station."
He explained that police were required to transfer the suspect to the military in accordance with martial law, which gives the military superior power over civilian authorities and laws.
The woman, who has since been identified as 50-year-old Sunanta Puangsiri, was seen flashing the "three-finger salute" near a larger anti-coup rally at Terminal 21 shopping mall in central Bangkok before she was forcefully shoved into a taxi by undercover police officers. The three-finger salute, inspired by popular sci-fi triology "The Hunger Games," has become a symbol of coup resistance.
Intially, police denied any involvement in the incident. Speaking in a live interview with Spring News TV yesterday morning, deputy commander of the Royal Thai Police Somyot Pumphanmuang suggested she was possibly taken away by her own husband.
"It could have been her husband who didn't want her to join the protest, so he took her home," Pol.Gen. Somyot said, adding that the police would never arrest anyone in such manner.
"I already told you that the military and police do not perform our duties with violence," he explained.
Hours later Lumpini Police confirmed that it was their plainclothed officers that detained Ms. Sunanta. According to the officers, she was not registered in the police database because she was immediately handed over to the military after arriving at the police station.
The police did not say why the lone protester was arrested.
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BANGKOK — Police say the woman abducted by undercover agents at the anti-coup protest in Bangkok on Sunday has been handed over to the military.
However, the police have no details about her current whereabouts or whether the military has pressed any charges against her, said Pol.Col. Chaiya Kongsap, commander of the Lumpini Police Station in Bangkok.
"We have no information whatsoever," Pol.Col. Chaiya told Khaosod English today. "The soldiers were already waiting for her when [the police] took her to the police station."
He explained that police were required to transfer the suspect to the military in accordance with martial law, which gives the military superior power over civilian authorities and laws.
The woman, who has since been identified as 50-year-old Sunanta Puangsiri, was seen flashing the "three-finger salute" near a larger anti-coup rally at Terminal 21 shopping mall in central Bangkok before she was forcefully shoved into a taxi by undercover police officers. The three-finger salute, inspired by popular sci-fi triology "The Hunger Games," has become a symbol of coup resistance.
Intially, police denied any involvement in the incident. Speaking in a live interview with Spring News TV yesterday morning, deputy commander of the Royal Thai Police Somyot Pumphanmuang suggested she was possibly taken away by her own husband.
"It could have been her husband who didn't want her to join the protest, so he took her home," Pol.Gen. Somyot said, adding that the police would never arrest anyone in such manner.
"I already told you that the military and police do not perform our duties with violence," he explained.
Hours later Lumpini Police confirmed that it was their plainclothed officers that detained Ms. Sunanta. According to the officers, she was not registered in the police database because she was immediately handed over to the military after arriving at the police station.
The police did not say why the lone protester was arrested.
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SYDNEY (DPA) — Police are hunting thieves who twice broke into a Melbourne toy store and stole about 14,000 dollars worth of Lego.
Police said Tuesday the burglars first broke into the store a week ago and stole 9,000 dollars worth of the multi-coloured plastic building blocks.
They returned on Sunday afternoon and stole 4,866 worth of more Lego, concentrating on the "City" and "Technic" themed collections.
Police appealed to anyone who may have seen suspicious activity to contact them.
CHIANG MAI — The abbot of the City Pillar Shrine in Chiang Mai has ordered local artists to alter the angels painted on the shrine’s walls by swapping their traditional swords with modern weapons.
"In the ancient time, these angels were equipped with ancient weapons like spears, swords, and knives," said the abbot, Phra Kru Suwattana Mettakhun. "But we decided to give them M16 rifles, M79 grenade launchers, handguns, and grenades, so they can have diverse choice of weapons."
"These are the weapons that are up to date," the abbot said.
The new weapons were added to the four Guardian Angels, who flank the entrance to the City Shrine, during a recent renovation of the sanctuary.
The murals chronicle the legend of the construction of the City Pillar and Phra That Jedi Luang Temple, another prominent religious site of Chiang Mai province, said Phra Kru Suwattana.
"We aim to restore and strengthen every part [of the shrine], so that it will be a monument and a sacred site that stands alongside Chiang Mai and the nation in many years to come," the abbot said.
Although the renovation has not been entirely completed, temple-goers and tourists are already allowed to visit the shrine and take photographs with the modern-equipped Guardian Angels. However, women are not permitted to enter the shrine due to a local custom.
According to the chronicles, the City Pillar was built in 1296 under the reign of King Meng Rai of the then-Lanna Kingdom.
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(Chiang Rai Times)
CHIANG RAI – Cultivation of opium in Southeast Asia’s notorious Golden Triangle region has doubled in the past decade, according to an in-depth study that rebuffs governments' claims that an aggressive anti-narcotics policy is reaping benefits and improving livelihoods.
The findings come a year before the 2015 deadline set by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc to make the region drugs free.
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SYDNEY (DPA) — Australia's 40-million-dollar campaign to host the 2022 World Cup is being examined by FIFA's chief investigator, a report said Tuesday.
Football Federation Australia's former corporate affairs manager Bonnie Mersiades has been interviewed by New York-based investigator Michael Garcia over the methods used to seek support from international football bosses, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Garcia also interviewed former FFA chief financial officer Ian Lewis, whom the paper said left the federation in 2010 after expressing concerns that he was not allowed to oversee the bid expenditure.
The FFA failed to call in Australian police to investigate findings of an inquiry last year that concluded the allegedly corrupt FIFA official Jack Warner stole 462,000 dollars in Australian bid funds he had requested to upgrade a stadium in Trinidad, the paper reported.
Mersiades told the paper she believed the federation did not report the alleged theft of its funds to police in order to conceal the tactic of giving "international development grants" to corrupt football bodies while seeking their vote.
"The revelations in the Sunday Times about the way Bin Hammam used hospitality, gifts, perks and upgrades of stadiums to win bid support has parallels with the manner in which Australia used some of its funds during its bidding campaign," the paper quoted her as saying.
"Just look at the FFA funds that landed in Warner's account and which have never been recovered."
The inquiry was conducted in 2013 by the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football integrity committee.
An FFA spokesman said the alleged theft by Warner was not reported to police because the Australian organization was awaiting the outcome of the current FIFA inquiry before pursuing the matter.
BANGKOK — Thailand’s Journalist Association (TJA) has criticised security forces for disguising themselves as reporters during their abduction of an anti-coup protester yesterday.
The comments came in response to footage of a lone protester being forcefully taken away by suspected undercover police officers, one of whom was wearing an official press badge, near an anti-coup demonstration at Ratchaprasong Intersection in Bangkok yesterday afternoon.
TJA spokesperson Manop Thip-osot told Khaosod English that that the association is "gravely distraught" to see one of the undercover policemen wearing a press badge and green arm band that TJA issues exclusively to journalists.
According to Mr. Manop, this was not the first time police officers have dishonestly worn TJA's green arm bands. He said that plain-clothed police officers are known to disguise themselves as reporters while collecting intelligence reports in protest sites, but yesterday was the first instance of officers making an arrest while sporting the journalist disguise.
Mr. Manop said TJA is worried that such action may put journalists and photographers covering the anti-coup protests at risk.
"Now the protesters may be suspicious [of the reporters]. They may aggressively demand to see our identification cards from now, which may lead to unnecessary confrontation," Mr. Manop said.
If the police continue to disguise themselves as reporters and wear the press arm bands, TJA will consider taking legal action against the police force, Mr. Manop said.
Mr. Manop added that the TJA is planning to issue a new design of arm bands to prevent further incidents of abuse. Furthermore, he urged all members of the press to refrain from handing over their arm bands to security forces or non-media individuals.
TJA has already sent a letter to the NCPO expressing its concern over the restriction of media freedom in the post-coup environment.
On 26 May, NCPO-leader Gen Prayuth responded by asking the Thai Journalists Association to stop making demands.
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