The police apprehended the foreign suspect and brought him to the investigating officer on October 10, 2023.
A foreigner has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing an 18-year-old Thai male in the toilet of a private hospital in Bangkok, but he continues to deny the claims.
On October 11, Pol. Col. Nimit Nuphonthong, superintendent of Lumpini Police Station, revealed that police investigators at Lumpini Police Station were able to arrest Mr. Saoud, 23, of Qatari nationality, the accused, at the entrance to a hospital’s emergency room in Khlong Toei Nuea Subdistrict, Watthana District, Bangkok.
He was on an arrest warrant from the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court on suspicion of raping and harming another person by threatening in any way or using violent force that others are unable to resist.
An 18-year-old fast food restaurant worker and Sai Mai Must Survive Facebook page staff visited Lumpini Police Station on October 10, 2023.
The crime was reported to Lumpini Police Station by an 18-year-old fast food restaurant employee of a hospital branch, who stated that on October 6 at approximately 12:30 a.m., as he was preparing to close the shop, the accused approached up and asked the way to the the toilet. He then issued directions by accompanying the accused to the WC. next to the store.
When they arrived at the room, the suspect drew him in, shut the door, and then groped and raped him before exiting the toilet.
The young man said he ran back to the store, but he didn’t inform his buddies since he was too terrified and humiliated. Soon after, this foreigner went up to the front of the store, as if nothing had happened, and inquired, “Is the shop closed yet?” before walking out of the hospital.
The CCTV footage shows the suspect going up to the front of the store on October 6, 2023.
Lumpini Police Station investigators went to the crime scene to examine CCTV footage. They gathered evidence and submitted it to obtain an arrest warrant.
Later, around 6:00 p.m. on October 10, the victim was notified that he had seen the suspect returning to the hospital. The police subsequently apprehended the foreign man and brought him to the investigating officer, while the accused dismissed the allegations made against him.
As a result, the police will await the findings of the physical examinations of both the young man and the suspect.
Palestinians walk through the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Eslaiah)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Over 180,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are packed into U.N. shelters as Israeli warplanes pound the tiny territory of 2.3 million people after their Hamas militant rulers launched an unprecedented weekend attack on Israel.
Among them is 27-year-old Sabreen al-Attar. She sprang into action when she heard rocket after rocket whoosh over her farmland in Beit Lahiya just south of the Israeli border on Saturday. She knew from experience that Israeli retaliation would be swift and severe.
Grabbing her children, al-Attar rushed to one of the dozens of shelters set up in schools run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City. There, blasts of unprecedented intensity punctuated hours of steadily declining conditions Monday as food and water ran out.
“When I escape, I do it for my children,” she said, her hands trembling. “Their lives rest on my shoulders.”
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)
But residents say there is no real escape in Gaza, which has been under a suffocating 16-year blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt. When war breaks out, as it has four times since the Hamas militant group seized power in 2007, even U.N. facilities that are supposed to be safe zones risk becoming engulfed in the fighting. The United Nations said that an airstrike directly hit one of its shelters Sunday and damaged five other schools-turned-shelters on Monday. There was no immediate word of casualties.
In the downtown Rimal area, Gaza City’s bustling commercial district with high-rises home to international media and aid organizations, al-Attar hoped she would be safe. Rimal had until then not been an immediate Israeli target, unlike border towns or densely populated refugee camps.
But as the Israeli military went neighborhood to neighborhood with rapid and intensifying airstrikes, the heavy bombardments reached the heart of Gaza City, transforming the affluent neighborhood into an uninhabitable desert of craters. Rimal was also hit by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza’s bloody 2021 war, but not to this extent.
Palestinians evacuate the wounded following an Israeli aerial bombing on Jabaliya, near Gaza City, Wednesday, Oct.11, 2023 (AP Photo/Mohammad Al Masri)
Israeli bombs that struck Gaza’s flagship Islamic University, government ministries and high-rises in Rimal, starting Monday afternoon, also blew out the windows of al-Attar’s shelter, shattering glass everywhere, she said. Life there, crammed with 1,600 others, was full of danger and deprivation but al-Attar said she had no choice but to stay, telling her boys — 2-year-old Mohammed and 7-year-old Nabil — to keep away from the windows.
“The night was very, very difficult,” she said Tuesday. “We have nowhere else to go.”
The bombing in Rimal and the potential risks of sheltering in U.N. schools highlighted the desperate search by Gaza civilians for refuge, with the territory’s safe spaces rapidly shrinking. There are no civilian bomb shelters in Gaza. Ahead of the Israeli military’s warning to civilians on Monday that Rimal would be hit, families staggered into the streets with whatever belongings they could carry and without a destination.
In a briefing Tuesday, Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht suggested Palestinians should try to leave through the Gaza border crossing with Egypt — a seemingly impractical suggestion.
While Hamas officials operating the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing said Tuesday that Gazans who had registered in advance could cross into Egypt, the number of those allowed to travel has typically been small. That has led to backlogs and waiting times of days or weeks, even in calm times.
“There is never a Plan B here,” said 31-year-old Maha Hussaini, as she watched terrified Rimal residents flood her Gaza City neighborhood further south just as bombs began to fall there, too. Israel accuses Hamas of endangering Gaza’s civilian population by placing weapons and missile launchers in densely populated areas. It also accuses them of using civilians as human shields. So far, the Gaza toll stands at about 700 dead and thousands wounded, according to Gaza health officials, a punishing response to the militant group’s attack that has killed over 900 Israelis. More than 150 Israeli civilians and soldiers have been taken captive.
Israel says it takes pains to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas sites in Gaza, which is heavily built up and has scant open space. Israel accuses Hamas of endangering Gaza’s civilian population by placing weapons and misisile launchers in densely populated areas. It also accuses them of using civilians as human shields.
But the military long has carried out airstrikes in crowded residential neighborhoods, inevitably harming civilians and civilian infrastructure. Hamas authorities on Monday reported the destruction of seven mosques and 15 civilian homes that killed many members of the same family.
The Israeli defense minister also has ordered a “complete siege” on the already blockaded Gaza Strip, vowing to block food, water and fuel from the territory.
“None of us even know what ‘safe’ means in Gaza,” said 28-year-old Hind Khoudary, who was hunkered down in the upscale Roots Hotel as deafening explosions thundered.
Palestinians walk amid the rubble following Israeli airstrikes that razed swaths of a neighborhood in Gaza City, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
“These are not people with (militant) affiliations, these are people from higher classes, foreign organizations and media,” she said of those around her. “But on days like this, there is zero difference.”
Residents described a dangerous dance around the heavy Israeli bombing — fleeing home, crashing at relatives’ apartments, fleeing again to U.N. schools and then starting all over again in an attempt to find some sense of safety.
“It is better than dying,” said 37-year-old Muhammad al-Bishawi, exhausted as he hustled between a U.N. shelter in Gaza City and his home in Beit Lahiya to secure food and other supplies before returning.
On Saturday after the massive Hamas attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Gaza civilians of the horrors to come, promising to unleash the full force of the Israeli military on the strip.
“Get out now,” he said, addressing Palestinians in Gaza. “Because we will operate everywhere.”
Khoudary was listening to him as the airstrikes intensified, trapped in her home with nowhere to run.
“Why didn’t he tell us where to flee?” she asked. “Because we’d really like to know.”
___
Issam Adwan reported from Gaza City Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
The former abbot, Thiramesawa Siri, was going to be charged with sexually abusing seven novice monks.
While many temples serve as sanctuaries and places of learning for underprivileged children, some have unfortunately become sites of sexual abuse of young boys.
The latest case occurred at Samakkee Dham Temple in Khee Lek sub-district of Mae Rim district in Chiang Mai province. The perpetrator, a chief abbot of the temple, was arrested by police and is now charged with many offences.
This happened after relatives presented evidence that he had detained and sexually abused seven novice monks, all of whom were Lao nationals.
A sex toy was found in the suspect’s monk’s house.
On October 11, Pol. Col. Thawatchai Pongwiwatthachai, commander of the Chiang Mai Provincial Police, said that police had collected crucial witnesses and evidence against former abbot Thiramesawa Siri, 48, on the evening of last Tuesday. He is accused of harming others, threatening children under the age of 15 by using force or intimidation, or putting the victim in a state of helplessness or causing the victim to misunderstand the perpetrator as someone else.
The police in charge of the case rejected the former abbot’s request for bail because further charges could be brought against him in the future pending the results of his medical examination.
As for the seven novices, they are currently in the care of their guardians and a Child and Youth Protection Foundation, which is assisting them in initiating proceedings. All seven novices have voluntarily expressed their intention to leave monastic life.
All of the seven novices expressed their intention to leave monastic life.
The police will then conduct further interviews in cooperation with other professionals to locate people who may have been victims of sexual abuse and physical violence. They will then be examined to gather legal and scientific evidence. If confirmed cases of sexual abuse are found, charges are filed accordingly.
At the same time, according to the information received, there are indications that children are being brought for ordination as novice monks, especially from neighbouring countries. The police will investigate how these children were brought here and the routes they took.
In addition, the issue of collecting donations under the pretext of supporting novice monks will be investigated. If links to human trafficking are uncovered, this could result in charges being pursued along with other relevant charges.
According to the United Nations Thematic Working Group on Migration in Thailand 2019, there is no accurate data on the total number of migrant children due to a large proportion being undocumented. It was estimated to be between 300,000 and 400,000.
Despite Thailand’s progress in improving access to education for migrant children to better integrate into Thai society and the labour market, they remain one of the groups most at-risk of being out of school.
Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited (CP Foods) marked its illustrious presence at ANUGA 2023 in Cologne, Germany, reinforcing its stature as a global leader in the food industry.
CP Foods meticulously crafts its innovations for comprehensive well-being and shows a steadfast commitment to social and environmental sustainability. At this esteemed event, the company displayed a selection of its products, emphasizing the premium quality of their chicken meat. This meat product is specially designed to meet stringent space safety standards, deeming it astronaut-friendly.
Among the 7,800 esteemed food exhibitors at ANUGA 2023, CP Foods is a standout. Positioned at Stand D050 in Hall 9, CP Foods attracts associates, industry experts, and culinary enthusiasts globally, becoming a center of interest and interaction.
CP Foods’ CEO, Prasit Boondoungprasert, emphasized the company’s unwavering commitment to adhering to the strictest global safety protocols. He highlighted CP Foods’ premier position as a top chicken exporter from Thailand, the world’s fourth-largest chicken exporter. At ANUGA 2023, the company introduced its groundbreaking “CP Food – Mission to Space” initiative. This project signifies the stringent safety and quality benchmarks that represent CP Foods, establishing its standing as a trusted brand in the international food arena.
The “Thai Chicken – Mission to Space” initiative exemplifies the ambition to promote Thai food safety worldwide. Partnering with Mu Space and Nanoracks, CP Foods intends to launch Thai dishes bearing the “SPACE SAFETY STANDARD” seal, introducing Thai culinary genius to space.
Furthermore, CP Foods aspires to become the sustainable “Kitchen of the World.” Operating in 17 countries and distributing premium products to over 50 nations, CP Foods is committed to delivering the highest quality food, strengthening food security, and improving quality of life with health-beneficial and eco-friendly products.
The company also commits to business practices in strict alignment with the principles of environmental, social, and governance (ESG). This is in harmony with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and highlights the company’s profound commitment to achieving Net-Zero carbon emissions.
At Booth No. D050, Hall 9, at ANUGA 2023, CP Foods showcases its innovative products adhering to space safety standards, including:
The FIELD GOOD brand – a next-generation plant-based meat alternative that captures the authentic flavor and texture of real meat, earning the acclaim of the International Taste Awards with 3 stars for two successive years.
The CP FOOD NETWORK (CPFNW) zone shines a light on global food trade, showcasing culinary gems from every part of the world to meet consumer expectations.
The READY-TO-EAT FOOD section presents dishes under the Authentic Asia label, offering a deep-dive into “Asian Cuisine”, further enriched by the “Kitchen Joy” brand, bringing Thai specialties to global taste buds.
Chef Cares products, a unique line crafted by world-class chefs, focus on nurturing community and consumer health, with the distinct approach of dedicating all profits to charitable causes.
The leading ANUGA 2023 food and drink trade event runs from 7-11 October 2023, open daily from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM.
In this photo released by the Hong Kong Government Information Services Department, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee, right, and Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin stand for a photograph during their meeting at Government House in Hong Kong on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (Hong Kong Government Information Services Department via AP)
HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s leader said Tuesday the city would seek to strengthen its economic and trade ties with Thailand after a meeting with the country’s prime minister, as the Chinese financial hub looks for more business opportunities in Southeast Asia.
Chief Executive John Lee said at a weekly press briefing that he and Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin agreed during a meeting on Monday that the two sides have “good and close relations” and that they would promote more exchanges between their people.
Lee’s administration wants to expand the city’s role in Southeast Asia to boost economic growth for the financial hub after years of COVID-19 restrictions. It aims to position the city as a bridge between mainland China and the international community.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee, right, and Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin stand for a photograph during their meeting at Government House in Hong Kong on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023.
Lee said Hong Kong will work to deepen regional cooperation and strengthen its work on economic, trade and investment activities with countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Since 2010, ASEAN has been the second-largest trading partner for Hong Kong, the government said.
Srettha arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday for a three-day trip. He met with officials and business leaders including Bernard Chan and Allan Zeman, according to his post on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.
In a press statement on Monday, Lee also thanked Thailand for supporting Hong Kong’s attempt to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a major 15-nation trade agreement that took effect last year. The deal slashes tariffs on thousands of products, streamlining trade procedures and providing mutual advantages for member nations.
Members of the trade bloc hope the initiative, encompassing about a third of world trade and business activity, will help power their recoveries from the pandemic.
A town in Kachin state, Myanmar. At least 29 people are reported to have died in an attack made by heavy artillery. Photograph: Khin Maung Win/AP
An airstrike by Myanmar’s military on a refugee camp in the northernmost Kachin State on Monday night killed at least 29 people including children, injuring more than 50, local media reported, citing a spokesman from an ethnic minority militia in the state.
Around 10 out of those killed at the camp for internally displaced people were children, said the spokesman of the Kachin Independence Army, which controls the area where the camp is located, according to Radio Free Asia Burmese’s report on Tuesday
A drone or aircraft of the Myanmar military dropped a bomb on the refugee camp, situated some 3 kilometers from the KIA headquarters, the report said, citing the spokesman.
Military spokesman Zaw Min Tun on Tuesday denied a bomb was dropped, saying the explosion was likely caused by the KIA.
Fighting between the ruling military and ethnic minority militias as well as pro-democracy forces since the 2021 coup have driven 1.6 million people from their homes, leaving them internally displaced, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The Monday attack was the deadliest on the area controlled by the KIA since the junta’s bombing of a community event in October last year killed over 60 people, according to local media Myanmar Now.
In April, the military conducted an airstrike on the Sagaing region of central Myanmar, killing over 160 people.
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Additional news reporting from the Associated Press on October 11, 2023
Myanmar Witness, a non-governmental organization that collects and analyzes evidence related to human rights incidents, said it confirmed the camp was damaged but that it was still investigating the cause.
The military claims it targets only armed guerrilla forces and facilities, but there is considerable evidence that churches and schools have also been hit and many civilians killed and wounded. Artillery is frequently used.
The United States condemned the attack in a statement Tuesday. “The United States will continue to support the people of Burma and all those working peacefully to support their aspirations for peace and inclusive democracy,” the State Department wrote.
A man looks on at homes destroyed after air and artillery strikes in Mung Lai Hkyet displacement camp, in Laiza, Myanmar, Tuesday Oct. 10, 2023. (AP Photo)
The Kachin are one of the stronger ethnic rebel groups and are capable of manufacturing some of their own armaments. They also have a loose alliance with the armed militias of the pro-democracy forces that were formed to fight army rule.
In October 2022, the military carried out airstrikes that hit a celebration of the anniversary of the founding of the Kachin Independence Organization, the political wing of the Kachin Independence Army, near a village in Hpakant township, a remote mountainous area 167 kilometers (103 miles) northwest of Laiza. The attack killed as many as 80 people, including Kachin officers and soldiers, along with singers and musicians, jade mining entrepreneurs and other civilians.
Family members check the bodies of relatives before being buried at a hospital in the town of Laiza, Myanmar, Tuesday Oct. 10, 2023.(AP Photo)
“Killing us en masse like this is a criminal act. The international community needs to know and take action. I would also like to ask the U.N. organizations to take action,” KIA spokesperson Naw Bu said Tuesday.
U.N. Deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq in New York highlighted the problems of displaced persons in Myanmar, noting that Kachin state “has seen an escalation in fighting over recent months, driving a surge in displacement, as well as worsening needs and protection concerns.”
He said the attack “underscores the dangers faced by the nearly two million people who are now displaced in Myanmar, including 1.7 million people who have fled their homes as a result of conflict and insecurity” since the military’s 2021 takeover.
Palestinians inspect the rubble Abu Helal family in Rafah refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. The strike killed dozens of people.(AP Photo/Hatem Ali)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel pounded downtown Gaza City with relentless bombardments Tuesday and further expanded a massive mobilization of reservists as it vowed a retaliation that would “reverberate … for generations” against the Hamas militant group for its surprise weekend attack.
The war — which began after Hamas militants stormed into Israel on Saturday, bringing gunbattles to its streets for the first time in decades — has already claimed at least 1,800 lives.
It is only expected to escalate from here, with questions over whether Israel will launch a ground invasion and Hamas threatening to kill captured Israelis if strikes targeted civilians without warning. Israel said that Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza are also holding more than 150 soldiers and civilians hostage.
Palestinians remove a dead body from the rubble of a building after an Israeli airstrike Jebaliya refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Ramez Mahmoud )
Israel’s military said Tuesday morning that it had regained effective control over its south and the border, breached over the weekend in an attack that caught its vaunted military and intelligence apparatus completely off guard.
The bodies of roughly 1,500 Hamas militants, meanwhile, were found on Israeli territory, the military said. It wasn’t immediately clear whether those numbers overlapped with deaths previously reported by Palestinian authorities.
The military expanded the mobilization of reservists to 360,000, according to Israeli media. That, along with the airstrikes and a formal declaration of war on Sunday, pointed to Israel increasingly shifting to the offensive against Hamas, threatening greater destruction in the densely populated, impoverished Gaza Strip.
It remains to be seen whether that offensive will include a ground assault. The last such assault was in 2014.
Palestinians remove a dead body from the rubble of a building after an Israeli airstrike Jebaliya refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Ramez Mahmoud )
The Israeli military said it struck hundreds of targets in Gaza’s City Rimal neighborhood, a densely populated, upscale district that is home to ministries of the Hamas-run government, as well as universities, media organizations and the offices of aid organizations.
After hours of nonstop strikes, some residents left their homes at daybreak to find some buildings torn in half by strikes, while others were reduced to mounds of concrete and rebar. Cars were flattened and trees burned out in moonscapes that had been residential streets.
“We have only started striking Hamas,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a nationally televised address late Monday. “What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.”
The devastation in Rimal signaled what could be a new Israeli tactic: warning civilians to leave certain areas and then hitting those areas with airstrikes of unprecedented intensity. If these types of bombardments continue, Gaza’s civilians will have fewer and fewer places to shelter as more neighborhoods become uninhabitable.
The heavy bombardments and Israel’s threats to topple the group sharpened questions about Hamas’ strategy and objectives. Hamas leaders have not spoken publicly about whether they anticipated Israel’s ferocious retaliation — and the potential risk of losing much of the group’s government infrastructure — when they launched the weekend attack.
In a briefing Tuesday, army spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht suggested Palestinians should try to leave through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Israeli firefighters extinguish fire at a site struck by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
The U.N. said Tuesday that more than 187,000 of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have left their homes — the most since a 2014 air and ground offensive by Israel uprooted about 400,000.
UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, is sheltering more than 137,000 people in schools across the territory. Families have taken in some 41,000 others.
Asked if Israel considered Hamas’ civil government, such as parliament and ministries, legitimate targets, Hecht said “if there’s a gunman firing rockets from there, it turns into a military target.”
In response to Israel’s aerial attacks, the spokesman of Hamas’ armed wing, Abu Obeida, said Monday night that the group will kill one Israeli civilian captive any time Israel targets civilians in their homes in Gaza “without prior warning.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen warned Hamas against harming any of the hostages, saying, “This war crime will not be forgiven.” Netanyahu appointed a former military commander to manage the hostage and missing persons crisis.
The Israeli military said more than 900 people already have been killed in Israel. In Gaza and the West Bank, 704 people have been killed, according to authorities there; Israel says hundreds of Hamas fighters are among them. Thousands have been wounded on both sides.
The surprise weekend attack by Hamas left a death toll unseen since the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria — and those deaths happened over a longer period of time. The weekend attack was also notable for its high number of civilian deaths.
Palestinians, mostly journalists, gather around the bodies of two Palestinian reporters, Mohammed Soboh and Said al-Tawil, who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel Saturday, killing over 900 people and taking captives. Israel launched heavy retaliatory airstrikes on the enclave, killing hundreds of Palestinians. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
That fomented calls to crush Hamas no matter the cost, rather than continuing to try to bottle it up in Gaza. Israel is run by its most hard-right government ever, dominated by ministers who adamantly reject Palestinian statehood.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” on Gaza, saying authorities would cut electricity and block the entry of food and fuel.
Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council aid group, warned that a siege would spell “utter disaster” for Gazans.
“There is no doubt that collective punishment is in violation of international law,” he told The Associated Press. “If and when it would lead to wounded children dying in hospitals because of lack of energy, electricity and supplies, it could amount to war crimes.”
Hamas, in turn, says it is ready for a long battle against Israel. Desperation has grown among Palestinians, many of whom see nothing to lose under unending Israeli control and increasing settlements in the West Bank, the blockade in Gaza and what they see as the world’s apathy.
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have razed 790 housing units and severely damaged 5,330, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said early Tuesday. Damage to three water and sanitation sites have cut off services to 400,000.
The Israeli siege will leave Gaza almost entirely dependent on its crossing into neighboring Egypt at Rafah, where cargo capacities are lower than other crossings into Israel.
An Egyptian military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press, said more than 2 tons of medical supplies from the Egyptian Red Crescent were sent to Gaza and efforts were underway to organize food and other deliveries.
Hamas has ruled Gaza since driving out forces loyal to the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority in 2007, and its rule has gone unchallenged through the blockade and four previous wars with Israel.
Meanwhile in the West Bank, Palestinians entered a fourth day under severe movement restrictions. Israeli authorities have sealed off crossings to the occupied territory and closed checkpoints, blocking movement between cities and towns. Clashes between rock-throwing Palestinians and Israeli forces in the territory since the start of the incursion have left 15 Palestinians dead, according to the U.N.
Security guards check a worker's bag before allowing them into the Siam Paragon Mall in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023, a day after a teenage boy with a handgun opened fire inside the major shopping mall in the center of Thailand's capital, killing two people before being apprehended. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)
On October 10, the Department of Economy and Tourism of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports published a report on the situation of tourism in the 40th week of 2023 (from October 2 to October 8, 2023). It mentions that European tourists, including Russia and the United Kingdom, started to recover last week, while Chinese tourists decreased compared to the previous week.
The number of Chinese tourists entering Thailand was down significantly at 75,093. Nearly one-third of Chinese tourists chose to travel during the week leading up to Golden Week to avoid overcrowding and security concerns following the Siam Paragon shooting.
Ambulances wait outside an exit of the Siam Paragon Mall in Bangkok while shoppers rush out Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Tian Macleod Ji)
In addition, last week marked the end of the continuous vacation season and the beginning of the school semester in the ASEAN, East Asia and Oceania regions. Thailand recorded a total of 497,966 foreign tourists, a decrease of 54,453 people or 9.86 percent from the previous week. This represents an average of 71,138 foreign tourists entering Thailand every day.
The top five foreign tourist nationalities last week were:
1. Malaysia with 76,432 tourists, showing a decrease of 20.43 percent compared to the previous week.
2. China with 75,093 tourists, showing a decrease of 29.47 percent.
3. India with 34,020 tourists, showing a decrease of 8.22 percent.
4. South Korea with 30,742 tourists, showing a decrease of 26.77 percent.
5. Laos with 24,030 tourists, showing a decrease of 1.16 percent.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin greets a Chinese girl who came with her parents under the VISA exemption for Chinese and Kazakh tourists on their arrivals at Suvarnabhumi International Airport on Monday, Sept. 25, 2023.
In the coming week, there are concerns about the negative impact of the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group, which could lead to some 480,000 foreign tourists having reservations about traveling between the countries.
As for the cumulative number of tourists from January 1 to October 8, 2023, there were a total of 20,549,501 tourists who contributed to tourism spending of 861.845 billion baht.
Neighbours come to support Sunita, who has received devastating news about her husband from Israel.
Another Thai family has received devastating news from Israel after a surprise attack by a Hamas militant that led to the Israel-Hamas War. It was a woman from Pa Klang sub-district, Pua district, Nan province in northern Thailand named Sunita Kongpirinun. She lost her husband.
Sunita tearfully recounted that her husband, Thawatchai Saetao, or Cheng, had a video call with her and their 2-year-old son on October 7, their son’s birthday. Cheng blessed his son and promised that he would buy him toys when he received his salary.
“During the call, we hear the sound of bombing. He pointed in the direction where the terrorists fired their missiles. Some fell into his work area, but he was able to dodge and nothing happened. Then we heard another bombing sound near the camp or inside the camp, I am not sure. He then said that he would excuse himself to cook and eat some instant noodles because if something happened he could escape. He said he would call again after the meal, but [I] could not connect with him after that”
Sunita tearfully recounted that her husband had a video call with her and their 2-year-old son on October 7, their son’s birthday.
Sunita further explained that on October 9, a friend of her husband who worked in the same camp contacted her and reported that her husband had been shot since October 7. During dinner with his colleagues, an armed group had raided the camp and thrown grenades. Initially, her husband was shot in the leg and stomach, but he was still alive. However, the armed group dragged him out and shot him in the head, ending his life.
The woman who suffered this loss mentioned that her family was in financial trouble and was trying to work to build their family. They were in the process of renovating their house for the future residence of her elderly parents. Her husband had gone to Israel to work, pay off his debts, and save money for the family’s expenses.
Sunita said she does not know what to do or how to bring her husband’s body back for funeral.
After working there for a year and a half, they had paid off their debts and wanted to proceed with the renovation of their house. She had already ordered the building elements for the house.
“Right now, our family has no savings left. I don’t know what to do, and I don’t know how to bring his body back for burial. The government officials only say that there is no confirmation of his death, although there are witnesses who saw the incident,” Sunita said.
In the province of Nan, there were 898 workers who had traveled to Israel to work. Currently, only about 10 can be contacted, with Cheng reported deceased. Relatives are trying to contact other workers. This came after a colleague posted thr information for people who had been shot and injured, some of whom had been taken into custody.
Local residents wade through a flooded road near Shwe Maw Taw pagoda in Bago, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Yangon, Myanmar, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
GRANT PECK BANGKOK — Flooding triggered by heavy monsoon rains in Myanmar’s southern areas has displaced more than 14,000 people and disrupted traffic on the rail lines that connect the country’s biggest cities, officials and state-run media said Monday.
State television MRTV reported Monday evening that the number of displaced people in Bago township, about 68 kilometers (42 miles) northeast of Yangon, the country’s biggest city, had climbed to that figure, and they were taking shelter in 36 relief camps. It said almost 1,000 more people in Mon state’s township, just east of Bago, were sheltering in three relief camps, and there some evacuations in a northern part of Yangon.
A senior official at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, Lay Shwe Zin Oo, said that constant rainfall in the Bago region that began last week caused the flooding in the low-lying areas of its capital, Bago township. She said there were no casualties reported so far.
People use their mobile inside their electronic shop on a flooded road in Bago, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Yangon, Myanmar, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023.(AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
Bago township recorded 7.87 inches (200 millimeters) of rainfall, its highest level in 59 years, Myanmar’s Meteorological Department said Sunday. Rain or thundershowers was forecast for across the country until noon on Tuesday.
One of the leaders of an emergency rescue team in Bago told The Associated Press that the flooding was up to about eight feet (2.3 meters) deep in low-lying areas and four feet (1.2 meters) downtown.
“Almost the whole area of the town was flooded,” Thant Zin Maung, chairman of the Mizzima Thukha Charity Foundation said by phone on Monday. “It is the third flood in the town this year and the worst in many years. All the monasteries in the town have opened relief camps. Charity organizations are evacuating people from low-lying areas as much as they can.”
A local resident drives motorbike on a flooded road in Bago, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Yangon, Myanmar, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
A 55-year-old resident of Bago’s Pan Hlaing ward interviewed by phone said the floodwaters were as much as six feet (1.8 meters) deep in her neighborhood, and her family members were living on the second and third floors of their house.
The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Myanmar’s military government prefers to tightly control the release of information, said the water was still rising steadily in her neighborhood, which had never flooded badly before.
Social Welfare Ministry official Lay Shwe Zin Oo said Bago evacuees were sheltering in relief camps, schools and Buddhist monasteries, while the authorities were providing food, drinking water and other essential assistance.
Volunteers use a boat on a flooded road in Bago, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Yangon, Myanmar, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
Reports in the state-run Myanmar Alinn newspaper on Monday said that trains that departed from Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city in central Myanmar, and from southern Mawlamyine township were halted en route. Scheduled departures from Yangon, the biggest city in the country, were canceled after rail lines were flooded by the rapid flow of water from mountain torrents and the spillage from dams in the Bago region.
MRTV said almost 1,000 people in Mon state’s Kyaikto township, just east of Bago, were sheltering in three relief camps, and there some evacuations as well in a northern part of Yangon.
Myanmar experiences extreme weather virtually every year during the monsoon season. In 2008, Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 people. In July and August this year, floods in Mon, Kayin and Rakhine states and the regions of Bago and Magway killed five people and displaced about 60,000.
Local residents wade through a flooded road in Bago, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Yangon, Myanmar, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
