Thai Police arrested for kidnap and extortion

Kidnappers were cops
source: Bkk Post
Eight elite border patrol police and four civilians were arrested in Bangkok on Friday on charges of kidnapping a businesswoman and her two sons and extorting an 8.7 million baht ransom.
Metropolitan police chief Assawin Kwanmuang said police nabbed the eight officers, led by Nat Chonnithiwanit, 28, who was responsible for anti-narcotics operations in Chumphon, and four civilians involved in the kidnap of Piangjit Pueng-on in Bangkok.
Five more border patrol police officers involved in the kidnap are still at large, said Pol Lt-Gen Assawin.
Police began their investigation after Mrs Piangjit, a garment factory owner, filed a complaint with Bang Phlad district police on Tuesday, shortly after her release.
A highly-placed source said Pol Capt Nat and his team rented a four-storey building, Aree Residence, which has eight VIP rooms, on Soi Aree off Phahon Yothin road on Jan 17.
They had Sirintip Modsakul, a member of the team who had worked for Mrs Piangjit, invite her to a party on Sunday at the rented building where the group used crystal metham-phetamine, also known as ice.
Mrs Piangjit had just received 20 million baht in child support from her divorced husband.
The source said during the party the suspects showed up and pretended to arrest Mrs Piangjit. They then took her to her condominium in Bang Phlad district and took her 10- and 15-year-old sons as hostages in exchange for 8.7 million baht.
Mrs Piangjit and her sons were locked up in Aree Residence before the officers forced her to withdraw the money from her bank accounts.
After receiving the money, the team freed the woman and her children before Mrs Piangjit lodged a complaint with Bang Phlad police.
On Thursday police surrounded the Aree Residence and told the officers to surrender. A number of weapons were also seized.
Pol Lt-Gen Assawin said the gang had brutally assaulted the victims. He suspected Mrs Piangjit was not the first to fall prey to the extortion gang.
The arrested officers face five charges, including armed robbery, forced intrusion, threatening others with weapons, detaining others and abducting minors.
Pol Capt Nat denied all the charges and refused to answer questions, merely saying he was pursuing a drug case in which he previously seized some 1,700 methamphetamine pills in two separate operations in Chumphon.
All the suspects were taken for questioning at Bang Phlad district police station yesterday and were to be sent to court today.
Police chief Seripisuth Temiyavej ordered the officers' commander to sack them.
The five wanted officers are Pol Lt Col Theerasak Klamtago, Pol Sgt-Maj Anuchit Prom-ubon, Pol Sgt-Maj Anusit Netsuwan, Pol Sgt-Maj Wirote Sikao and Pol Sen Sgt-Maj Prasan Sontawee.

Famed director arrested for drug abuse

 

 

BEIJING, Jan. 11 -- Award-winning Chinese film director Zhang Yuan was detained by Beijing police on Wednesday for suspected drug use.

The director, along with three others, was found at his home in eastern Beijing with methamphetamines and ketamine, according to a report on Beijing Television.

The other detainees included an acclaimed music producer and a cinematographer, the report said.

All four later tested positive for both meth and ketamine.

Zhang Yuan, 44, is known as a salient member of China's Sixth Generation of film directors, which also includes Jia Zhangke and Wang Xiaoshuai.

Zhang Yuan won a CICAE award at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival for his film, "Little Red Flowers."

The director is not the first Chinese celebrity to be caught using illegal drugs. Last May, pop singer Xie Dong was taken into custody after testing positive for meth.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)

MALAYSIA: 3 jailed over Malaysian sex-scandal video

 

Health minister's scandal video ranked among highest in Internet searches

The Straits Times
Tuesday, January 8, 2008

By Chow Kum Hor

KUALA LUMPUR --- Three Malaysians were jailed and two others arrested yesterday for possessing and making copies of a video that featured the former health minister in sex acts with a female companion in a hotel room.

The trio were the first to be charged and sentenced for possession of the video, which is much sought-after in Malaysia and among the Internet community.

The three Johor residents were charged under a section of the Penal Code for possession of obscene objects.

Beauty saloon worker Tay Bee Bee, 29, was sentenced to five days in jail and fined RM10,000 (S$4,400) for possessing three DVDs featuring former minister Chua Soi Lek, The Star daily reported on its website yesterday.

Tay's colleague, See Tooh Choy Yoke, 26, and farmer Lim Poi Keong, 51, were sentenced to four days in jail and fined RM15,000 each for duplicating the DVDs.

Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek, 61, stepped down from his ministerial post last week after owning up to being the man in the steamy scenes, secretly taped using four hidden cameras in a hotel in Batu Pahat, Johor.

Police have warned the public not to watch or distribute the clips, which surfaced after the videos were placed in various locations in Muar and Batu Pahat.

Six people have been arrested in the case, including the three who were sentenced by the Johor court yesterday after they pleaded guilty to making copies of the video.

The two arrested yesterday had in their possession 12 DVDs of the video, The Star reported. The sixth person, Tan Kim Chong, 48, denied a charge of having the DVDs in his possession at a Johor food court last Friday and claimed trial.

Meanwhile, the sex-tape scandal jumped to the top of most searched items on a leading blog search engine, beating inquiries about the US presidential race, troubled pop star Britney Spears or the iPhone.

At one point last week, it was the top query on Technorati, a blog search engine, wrote one blogger who carried a screen shot of the rankings in his posting.

About 10pm on Sunday night, 'vcd lucah chua soi lek', Malay for 'Chua Soi Lek's pornography VCD' was ranked fourth, while 'chua soi lek' was at No. 11 in Technorati's top 15 search lists.

'On Jan 3, it was the top search on Technorati. That was around 11pm. That caught me by surprise,' a Malaysian blogger identified only as Mr Woo told The Straits Times. He blogs on Live mylifeonline.com.

Second on the list then was 'iPhone'. Other popular topics include 'webcam' and 'Benazir Bhutto'.

The surge showed that while police gave many warnings against being caught with the video, many went online to view the taped scenes.

About 10am yesterday, the sex video was more popular than queries on Britney Spears and Mr Ron Paul, a tech-savvy US presidential hopeful.

The California-based Technorati indexes over 112 million blogs, according to online encyclopaedia Wikipedia.

Many people have also turned to YouTube to view scenes from the video.

The clips are not the steamy ones and are heavily edited. Some were apparently uploaded from TV news.

Date Posted: 1/8/2008

KOREA: LGE to pay damages for personal data leak

 

Hacker created computer program allowing others to view resumes of LG job applicants

The Korea Herald
Friday, January 4, 2008
The Seoul Central District Court yesterday ordered LG Electronics to pay 700,000 won ($747.40) in damages to each of 31 job applicants whose personal data were divulged from the company's recruitment website.

A total of 290 people filed a collective lawsuit against the company, but only 31 of them were affected by the hacking by a man surnamed Lim, according to the court.

Lim himself applied to the conglomerate in September 2006. He created a computer program that enables its users to view the resumes of all LG job applicants. He posted the program on an internet cafe. It remained on the site for 55 minutes before being removed by a website operator.

Date Posted: 1/4/2008

KOREA: Blog hacker threatens singer

KOREA: Blog hacker threatens singer

Pop star blackmailed with media release

The Korea Times
Friday, June 15, 2007

By Kim Rahn

It is not only malicious comments on the Internet that irritate stars. Hacking of stars' blogs is more bothering, as their private life and personal information can be leaked and sometimes used for a crime -- like a recent case involving BoA.

According to the police and S.M. Entertainment Friday, a 23-year-old college student was arrested for hacking a blog of singer BoA and blackmailing her, threatening to spread her private photos.

The student, identified as Seo, sneaked onto BoA's Cyworld blog in April 2006 and obtained photos that she took with a male singer. He sent e-mails to her manager to threaten that he would release the photos if they did not provide money. He took 35 million won.

S.M. Entertainment said in a press release that the victim was BoA and the male singer was Ahn Danny, former member of pop group g.o.d., and the two have been close friends.

"Seo threatened to spread a rumor that was not factual, and BoA's manager tried to catch him by contacting him and giving him money," the entertainment company said.

Seo also sent e-mails to Ahn and his manager on over 10 occasions earlier this month, demanding 65 million won in exchange for not spreading the photos and the rumor. The police investigating BoA's case traced the e-mails and caught Seo, according to the police and the company.

To hide his identity, Seo sent the e-mails with pop star Lee Hyo-lee's e-mail address that he obtained five years previous when hacking Lee's Web sites.

SK Communications, operator of Cyworld, said the police found that Seo did not break into the Web system but logged into the blog with a password that he guessed from BoA's information open to the public, such as date of birth.

However, whether through hacking or logging in with IDs, it is not the first time that stars' blogs with personal information are disclosed, and pressure is mounting that people need to respect stars' privacy.

In April, a personal blog of KBS anchor Choi Dong-sok was hacked and his photos with his girlfriend and anchor Park Ji-yoon were posted on the Internet. The photos were personal and the two reported the leakage to police.

"Public attention to stars is excessive and is reaching a law breaking-level," an Internet user with the ID "Jiyeong" said on Daum.

Date Posted: 6/15/2007

Shanghai taxi scam uses "trunk man" to steal goods

Shanghai taxi scam uses "trunk man" to steal goods

   Mark Frauenfelder, January 5, 2008 8:10 AM

China Daily reports that a cab driver has been ripping off his fares by employing a man to hide in the cab's trunk and steal stuff out of the luggage.

About halfway home, the driver received an “urgent call” and told Lei that he would have to drop her off and turn back. He waived her fee, unloaded her luggage and helped her get another taxi.

When she returned home, Lei discovered that her notebook computer had been removed from her luggage and called police.

After a month-long investigation, police determined that the driver had hid somebody in the trunk specifically to steal luggage. Both the driver and the “trunk man” were arrested.

South Park Mac vs. PC

South Park Mac vs. PC

A tale of two cities in divided Kingdom

A tale of two cities in divided Kingdom
source: The Nation December 31 2007 -Thanong Khanthong

 

PERSON OF THE YEAR - YOU!

'You' is a far cry from Time magazine's 2006 person of the year. 'You' is more complicated than the spontaneous forces that shape the digital world. 'You' are bitterly divided, yet fiercely determined though somewhat clueless. One half of 'You' is accused by the other of being 'na๏ve' and 'gullible', as opposed to the returned charges of being 'elitist' and 'uncaring'. 'You' have been skating on thin ice, so precariously but so far superbly. And because 'You', without a single drop of blood being shed, have brought back democracy with strong warnings to past, present and future powers-that-be, 'You' are our Person of the Year for 2007.
You no longer trust your neighbours or even your closest friends. Your family is split; so are your neighbourhood, community, province and country.
Talking politics has become taboo because you do not want to lose friends or engage in endless arguments that will never arrive at a conclusion.
The state of Thailand in 2007 was no different from that in 2006. It boiled down to whether you would like to embrace ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as your hero again or whether you would like to remove him forever from your nightmare.
It was a black-and-white proposition.
You did not have to exercise any profound thought to realise a Thaksin comeback would bring about endless political problems and retribution. You were anxious for the future of the country.
You were concerned over the sharp political divide. And you were disturbed by Thaksin's massive political influence and wealth, which allowed him - even as he was exiled abroad - to shape public opinion.
You woke on December 23 knowing it would be a fateful day, one determining the country's course for years to come. You had just one vote. This time you knew it was crucial.
No matter what the outcome, you knew political turmoil was moving to another phase - a final showdown.
The September 2006 coup marked only the beginning of an end. It should go down as the most polite coup ever. It did not resolve any problems. It only prolonged social polarisation that would manifest itself again in 2007 and beyond.
On second thoughts, you tried to soothe yourself by holding that a bloodless coup was a "Thai way" to resolve political conflict.
A lot of people should appreciate the polite coup, given a more prevailing culture of bloody violence in other parts of the world. Note the Bhutto assassination.
Polls showed the People Power Party, the reincarnation of the Thai Rak Thai, enjoying a lead and it could win at least 200 seats.
People Power would sweep the North and Northeast, where standards of living are the lowest. In Bangkok, there were signs it could manage a strong showing.
Still, you did not trust polls; there were attempts to manipulate them.
You were no big fan of the Democrat Party, which was a bit boring and lacked imagination. But you knew it was the strongest opposition to the People Power.
There were no national parties in Thailand. Thai politics is represented by regional diversities. The South, and at times Bangkok, voted Democrat. The North and Northeast voted People Power. Chart Thai took Central.
Other political parties, mostly breakaway factions of People Power, were all newcomers.
People Power campaigned on material gain and economic wellbeing, while the Democrats emphasised honest leadership.
You were surprised to find some of your neighbours, who had never voted before, did so. Again, they were no big fans of the Democrats. But they voted Democrat because they just did not want Thaksin back.
The election was split between those who supported Thaksin and those who did not, judging by the popular vote. The Democrats mustered 14,084,265 votes against 14,071,799 votes for People Power, a margin of about 10,000.
But the Democrat edge did not translate into more seats in the House. People Power won 233 seats of 480 thanks to its rural support. The Democrats took 165.
You were heartbroken. The middle class and other urban voters were too. They wanted to see an end to political turmoil and the country moving forward.
They were simply outnumbered. Bangkok had ignored the North and Northeast voters for too long. They saw in Thaksin a saviour who could improve their wellbeing through economic populism. They voted People Power because they would get a material benefit in return.
The Democrats did not lose this election. Its votes doubled to 14 million. The PPP (alias Thai Rak Thai) found its votes falling from more than 18 million to 14 million.
Voter turnout was a record 73 per cent, signalling voter realisation that the stakes were particularly high this time.
This was reminiscent of the George W Bush-Al Gore 2000 presidential race. US politics was shaped by geographical diversity. Gore won the popular vote by a tiny margin. But Bush bagged the electoral college votes.
Thailand had never faced this kind of sharp political divide before. You suddenly recalled His Majesty the King's speeches. His Majesty had expressed his concern over the divide. The King repeated warnings that people must reunite to keep the country on a steady course.
You also recalled the theory of Anek Laothamatas, the well-known academic and member of the Ruam Jai Thai Chart Pattana Party. In his "A Tale of Two Cities" theory, he argues rural voters vote in governments but urban voters kick them out. A government without broad-based support from the middle classes almost always finds it difficult to survive for long.
Once again, this theory will be put to the test.
Thanong Khanthong
The Nation
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