THAILAND: Website ban covers 50,000 sites, group claims

The Information and Communication Technology Ministry has also begun blocking websites without the legally required court order

Bangkok Post

Police and government censors now block more than 50,000 websites which supposedly feature pornography, southern Thailand terrorism or articles attacking the high institution, an anti-censorship group claimed on Wednesday.

Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) said it would offer help to anyone who wanted to install software to get around the government bans.

FACT "is pleased to provide links to two new, easy tools for private citizens to legally ignore Thailand's Internet censorship," said a notice on the group's bilingual Thai-English website at (facthai.wordpress.com)

The blog also has links to other sites which contain censor-beating tips and software, and to a list of websites purporting to be the "secret blocklist" of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology.

According to the group, which has been compiling lists of banned sites for several years, the government has recently stepped up censorship efforts.

FACT claimed that the ICT ministry now blocks 17,775 websites, which, "along with blocking by the Royal Thai Police, resulted in more than 50,000 websites blocked in Thailand."

Police censorship, authorised when Thailand was under military rule from 2006 until last year, remains in effect even though the law permits authorities to block sites only with a court order.

ICT Minister Ranongruk Suwunchwee told the Bangkok Post last week that she also has ordered websites blocked without court authority, because getting a court order can take time.

The FACT website now offers links and instructions for anyone to set up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) on their home or office computers. These security tools offer a "tunneling" method of Internet access directly to the United States, which effectively bypasses the Thai Internet service providers who block the sites under orders of the ICT.

"Governments believe they can censor free speech with impunity. VPN proves they cannot," said the group's blog post.

FACT said that the government plans its own national firewall at a cost of 100 million to 500 million baht -- $2.9 to $14.6 million.

"Can any country afford such measures to censor free expression?" the group's blog asked.

"Would this money not be better spent on amazing Thailand's amazing social crises, such as peace, justice and reconciliation in the South, or even Internet education?"

FACT also pointed out an opaque agreement between the government and Google where web surfers in Thailand are blocked by the American company from viewing certain websites, especially video clips which allegedly attack the high institution.

"There are now wholesale accusations of lese majeste in Thailand with each faction claiming to act for the protection of the monarchy," FACT said.

"Two webboard forum posters were arrested under the cybercrime law for their comments about the monarchy after being tracked by their IP address."

Thailand was also singled out on Tuesday in the annual report on world media freedom by the International Press Institute at the group's website (www.freemedia.at).

IPI cited Thailand first in its criticism of nations who used "censorship in the name of tradition, religion, culture and national reputation," which the group said was widespread around the world.

"In Thailand, laws protecting the reputation of the monarch prompted judicial proceedings and led to the shutdown of more than 2 000 websites," IPI claimed.

Viagra orgy man collapses

By VINCE SOODIN

A SEX-MAD Russian died after guzzling a bottle of Viagra pills to keep him going for a 12-hour orgy with two women pals.

The women had bet mechanic Sergey Tuganov £3,000 that he wouldn't be able to satisfy them both non-stop for the half-day sex marathon.

But minutes after winning the wager, the randy 28-year-old dropped dead with a heart attack, revealed Moscow police.

One of the women, named only as Alina, said: "We called emergency services but it was too late, there was nothing they could do."

Deadly Casanova Caught

BahtandSold

Man with HIV/Aids confesses to posing as Arab prince for unprotected sex with women

Posing as an Arab prince, a Thai man living with HIV/Aids lured more than 20 women into having unprotected sex in Pattaya, before stealing their valuables, reportedly to pay for medicines.

Police swooped early yesterday morning following a tipoff that a thief wanted for a purse snatch on January 9 was walking on Soi 9 of Pattaya Road 2. They arrested Suriyachat Thanomsuk, 29, and initially charged him with theft after he confessed to stealing the purse for money to pay for medicines.

At least 20 infected

Further investigation reฌvealed that Suriyachat, who spoke good English through working at a speedboat rental service, had been posing as an Arab or Indian prince to lure both Thais and foreigners into sleeping with him so he could steal their valuables.

He told police that most of the sex was unprotected, meaning that at least 20 people had been exposed to HIV infection.

Police urged any woman who suspects she may have been a victim of Suriyachat to file a complaint and have a blood test.

Chinese Scoop Up SoCal Foreclosures

Lots of foreigners are traveling to Southern California to see the sights and, more importantly, to look at all the foreclosed and price reduced homes.

I'm On A Boat (ft. T-Pain) - Album Version

Police Probe Expat Murder near Tesco Lotus

BahtSold.com 
phuketwan.com/Chutima Sidasathian and Alan Morison
Monday, February 23, 2009

POLICE and security guards at the scene have confirmed that a British man who worked in the property industry was killed in his home-office near the well-known Tesco-Lotus supermarket intersection on Phuket today.

Officers are treating the case as a murder, the second apparent murder of an expat on the island in the space of four days.

The man, according to reports, was killed in a three-storey shophouse block that fronts the road to Patong, just beyond the busy intersection with the Bypass Road.

The building is close to the Royal arch that crosses the road and is familiar to everyone who takes that route between Patong and Phuket City.

Police said the man was in his 60s and lived alone.

Precise circumstances of the murder have yet to be confirmed. His body was found about 9.30am, reports said, possibly by fellow workers arriving at the office.

Any connection to the death on Thursday evening in Patong of property developer Francis Alex Degioanni has yet to be established and seems unlikely.

Mr Degioanni died in a flurry of bullets fired by what seems to be a professional hitman, who strolled to the assignment just as daylight was fading.

Today's murder victim appears to have been battered to death, police say. His notebook computer and his mobile telephone are unaccounted for, presumably taken by the killer or killers.

Police believe robbery was not the motive because expensive gold jewellery was not taken.

Murders of expats on Phuket are rare. However, island police now have to deal with the unsettled reaction triggered by two expat killings between Thursday and Monday.

Phuketwan is reluctant to reveal details about the second killing until we are certain that relatives have been notified.

The apparent murder is a challenge for the newly appointed British honorary consul, Martin Carpenter, whose background ls in golf course management and public relations.

Despite reports that the case involving Mr Degioanni had been taken over by more senior police from Bangkok or Surat Thani, island police told Phuketwan today that the investigation was still in their hands.

Head of foreigner found hanging from city bridge

 
BahtSold.com Feb 23, 2009

The head of a foreigner has been found dangling from the railing of the Rama VIII bridge in Bangkok's Phra Nakhon district.

The head of a Western man in his 40s hangs from the Rama VIII bridge early yesterday afternoon.

Pol Lt-Col Atcharat Hemthanon, of Bowon Mongkhon police station, said the head was found hanging 5 metres below the bridge early yesterday afternoon.

Police found a message written in English saying, "I want it but I didn't get what I want," and, "I came here to see you".

Pol Lt-Col Atcharat said he received a call about the head about 2pm.

He went to the scene with Pol Col Chawalit Prasopsin, deputy commander of Metropolitan Police Division 7, a medical specialist from Siriraj Hospital, a team from the Scientific Crime Detection Division and rescue volunteers from Por Tek Tung Foundation. The specialist from Siriraj said the head was probably severed with a sharp object, and belonged to a Western man in his 40s.

He estimated the man was killed about eight hours before the examination.

A Puma-brand white polyester bag was also found attached to the rope used to hang the head from the bridge.

Pol Col Chawalit said police were searching for the man's body.

Investigators do not believe he took his own life.

Police investigators will ask for video footage from two surveillance cameras installed on Rama VIII bridge, and question any witnesses who appear in the footage, Pol Col Chawalit said.

"Right now, police want to identify the dead man," he said.

If investigators could contact the man's relatives, they might be able to find out the cause of death, he said.

Bowon Mongkhon police have asked police in the nearby Chana Songkhram area, which is popular with foreign tourists, whether anyone who fits the man's description has been reported missing.

Enraged Aussie pounds Bangkok police

(matichon.co.th photo)

BANGKOK: Life in Thailand can sometimes get a bit frustrating for expats when things don't quite work out as they would in their home countries. This, coupled with the booze-heavy lifestyle enjoyed by a fair percentage of Westerners living in the Kingdom, occasionally leads to "Angry Farang Syndrome".

A prime example occurred one afternoon last month outside Thong Lor Police Station. Station Superintendent Col Suthin Sapphuang was sitting in his office around 3 pm, when he heard a commotion from outside the station. When he got downstairs, he found the noise emanated from a large middle-aged Westerner who was busy beating the inside of a police van with such fury, that none of the watching officers dared to go near.

Col Suthin ordered his deputy and three inspectors to go and try and calm the 50-year-old man, identified by name in the original report, but referred to here only as "the Aussie".

After the officers' efforts to calm the Aussie down failed, they decided that a dose of pepper spray might do the trick. After the Aussie was liberally doused with the noxious spray, police decided he was calm enough for them to dare open the door.

However, as soon as police had the Aussie out of the truck, he exploded again, freeing himself from the clutches of the officers and going on a rampage, chasing and punching as many policemen as he could.

The enraged Australian managed to injure a number of officers before he was finally overpowered, in the process of which he, disturbingly, lost his trousers.


The photo of the incident in the Thai press shows the Aussie with his trousers round his ankles, his dignity somewhat spared by a small superimposed red dot.

The Aussie was bundled to the ground by the officers, and the group then rolled into the gutter. In acknowledgement to the Aussie's determination, it took six officers to keep him subdued long enough to get the cuffs on.

The Aussie was initially arrested following a complaint by a taxi driver that the Australian had stolen his cab. The taxi driver, Phanomphon Pranison, 40, told police that earlier that day he had picked up the Aussie opposite Sukhumvit Soi 16. The Aussie didn't say where he wanted to go, but when they got to opposite Soi 22, the Aussie asked to stop so he could go to 7-Eleven. A few moments later, the Aussie got back in the cab clutching two bottles of beer. In hot pursuit was a member of staff from the shop shouting that the Aussie had not paid for the beer. When Mr Phanomphon got out of the car, the Aussie climbed into the driver's seat and took off in the taxi, Mr Phanomphon said.

Mr Phanomphon reported the crime and police soon caught up with the Aussie, putting him in the cells at Thong Lor Police station. The Aussie, however, did not take his confinement lightly. He caused such a commotion that police began to fear for the safety of other prisoners, or worryingly, that other prisoners would take it upon themselves stop to the Aussie's antics. They decided to take him to the cells at nearby Phra Khanom Court, which is when he began attacking the police truck.

The Aussie was initially to be charged with theft and immigration offences. The report did not say if any charges would be added for his post-arrest behavior.

BahtandSold

Canadian gunned down in Thailand

OLIVER MOORE AND ANDREW DRUMMOND

Globe and Mail Update

Bangkok — The father of a Canadian slain in Thailand said he tried to warn his son to leave the country but the young man brushed off his concerns.

Thai police said that 34-year-old Francis Alex Degioanni, whom they characterized as a wealthy property developer, was gunned down Thursday. Investigators believe his death was related to his business activities.

The victim's father, Mario Degioanni, said the recent business dispute between his son and his son's partners had heightened his concern.

"All the time worried. All the time, all the time, all the time," he said in a telephone interview Friday from his home in Val-des-Monts, Queb.

But his son appeared unconcerned.

"He always said to me, he used to phone me twice a week, he said to me, 'There's no danger.'" said the 68-year-old Mr. Degioanni.

Mr. Deogianni described his son as a carefree man "always laughing." He grew up Pierrefonds, Que., and was educated at Valley Forge Military Academy and College in Pennsylvania. He moved to Thailand in his mid-20s.

His father said he was drawn to Thailand nine years ago because of its incredible physical beauty. He had since married a Thai woman and had a daughter. The couple was about to celebrate his birthday Thursday when he received a call. He told his wife that he had to deal with some urgent business.

As the victim drove away from his Patong Beach condo, on the popular tourist island of Phuket, witnesses said he was approached by gunmen. The men, both said to have had short, military-style haircuts, shot him eight times with .38 calibre pistols. He was wounded in the head, neck, chest and one arm.

"When I heard the shots I rushed down," said his wife, 22-year-old Tawadee Pencharoenwattana. "He was still alive and I dragged him across to the passenger seat and drove him to the hospital but he died before I reached it. We have only been living here six months."

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade confirmed that a Canadian had been killed in Thailand but, citing privacy law, offered no further details.

Police at the crime scene said they believe the shooting was business related.

"The Canadian was very wealthy and had been involved in property development in Phuket for over five years," Police Superintendent Krissak Songmoonmak said.

"We know he was in dispute with his Thai business partner and had claimed he had been cheated out of 20 million baht ($704,584 Canadian). That matter is already in the courts."

The victim's father questioned the description "very wealthy" but said his son had been successful selling condos to foreigners. He was almost finished moving his current inventory and was planning a visit back to Canada in the spring.

Instead his family received news Thursday that he had been slain. His mother flew straight to Thailand to arrange the body's transport home and to try to secure custody of his daughter.

Last year Canadian Leo Del Pinto, aged 24, from Calgary, was allegedly gunned down by a Thai policeman in the northern Thai village of Pai. The trial was abandoned late last year and the Department of Special Investigations has been asked to prepare a new case.

Also murdered in Thailand last year was Dale Henry, originally from B.C., but who spent much of his life as a paramedic and firefighter in Calgary. Police have arrested his Thai wife, her lover, and a hit man in connection with the shooting at his home in Thailand's Ranong Province, a case that is still going through the courts.

Australian writer freed from Thai jail after pardon

SURVIVING THE SLAMMER: Harry Nicolaides, jailed for slandering the monarchy, said he ran out of tears, but he never ran out of hope that he would be released

AFP, SYDNEY

An Australian writer jailed for insulting the Thai royal family flew home to a tearful reunion with his family yesterday after being pardoned by the king and freed from jail.

Feeling "bewildered, dazed and nauseous," Harry Nicolaides touched down in the city of Melbourne yesterday after spending five months in a Bangkok prison on charges of slandering the Thai monarchy.

Thai officials said 41-year-old Nicolaides was released on Friday evening after officials approved a royal pardon — the result of intense lobbying by Canberra.

"I was informed I had a royal pardon and asked to kneel before a portrait of the king — a royal audience of sorts," Nicolaides told reporters on arrival at Melbourne airport. "A few hours before that, I was climbing out of a sewerage tank that I fell into in the prison."

"I ran out of tears, but I never ran out of hope or love," he added, after an emotional homecoming with his family.

Nicolaides was sentenced to three years in jail after pleading guilty to lese majeste, or slandering the monarchy, in his 2005 novel titled Verisimilitude.

He expressed anger, confusion and frustration at his imprisonment, saying Australians enjoyed "rare privileges" of democracy and free speech.

His lawyer, Mark Dean, said the previous Thai administration had imprisoned Nicolaides to send a strong message of intolerance to dissent at the height of political unrest in Bangkok.

"I think it's fair to say that Harry was a political prisoner and that the reasons for the commencement of this case against him were inextricably linked to the political crisis in Thailand in August 2008," Dean said. "Since then conditions have changed in Thailand, there has been a change of government and the current Thai government has done everything it can to support Harry's case."

A spokesman from Australia's foreign affairs department said diplomats in Bangkok and Canberra had worked closely to resolve the writer's case.

"We appreciate the expeditious handling of the pardon by Thai authorities," the spokesman said.

Speaking at his son's side, Nicolaides' father Socrates said the ordeal had been a "living death" for the family.

"But now I feel I have come alive again," he said.

Brother Forde Nicolaides said he was "ecstatic" at the outcome.

"Our emphasis to the Thai government was ... for them to consider Harry's case compassionately and expeditiously," he told national newswire AAP. "I think everyone was on the same page, as they have been reasonably expeditious with the application. We are very grateful for that."

Nicolaides, who had previously worked as a university lecturer in Thailand, has been in prison since his arrest at Bangkok airport's departure lounge on Aug. 31.

The charge against him related to a passage in the novel, of which Nicolaides says only a handful of copies were sold.

Thailand has some of the strictest laws in the world protecting revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej and his family from insult, but media freedom groups have accused authorities of abusing the law to suppress dissent.

Thai authorities have banned nearly 4,000 Web sites in recent months for allegedly insulting the monarchy. Police said last week that more than 17 criminal cases of insulting the royal family are currently active.

Canadian businessman shot dead in Thailand on 34th birthday

BahtSold.com Feb 20, 2009

Told family in Quebec he previously survived attempted poisoning

Francis Alex Degioanni was gunned down Thursday in Phuket, Thailand.

A Canadian property developer died Thursday after being riddled with bullets in his car outside his condominium in Phuket, Thailand.

Francis Alex Degioanni, 34, appeared to have been the victim of a planned hit, freelance reporter Andrew Drummond, speaking from Bangkok, told CBC News.

"He drove out of the condo which he owned on Patong Beach on the island of Phuket and was stopped by two gunmen who shot at his body eight times. Police found wounds to his head, chest, arms. He died before reaching hospital," Drummond said.

Degioanni's family in Quebec said he called home last month to say he had been poisoned and that he blamed a business partner in Thailand.

His girlfriend, Nanthawadee Phenjaroenwatthana, said they were preparing to celebrate his birthday on Thursday when he received a phone call and said he had to go out, the English-language Phuket Gazette reported.

She said that when he got into his car, two men pulled up on a motorbike, opened fire and then fled, the newspaper said on its website.

Police were looking into whether the attack was related to a business dispute or some other motive, such as romantic jealousy, it said.
Selling condos to tourists

Degioanni had been doing business in Phuket for five years, selling condos to foreign tourists, the newspaper said, attributing the information to a police superintendent.

According to police, Degioanni was in conflict with a Thai partner with whom he co-owned a property development business in Phuket, a common arrangement under a law that limits foreign ownership of local companies, Drummond said.

Degioanni had accused the partner of cheating him out of the equivalent of about $750,000 and the matter was before the courts, he said.

Degioanni's father, Mario, lives in Val-des-Monts, Que., in the Gatineau area north of Ottawa.

The father's wife, Charmaine, told the CBC's Amanda Margison that her stepson was engaged in a bitter legal battle with a female business partner, whom he blamed for what he thought was an attempt to poison him.

The family asked him many times in recent years to come home, but he insisted his life was there, she said. He had lived in Thailand for nine years and had a three-year old daughter who remains there, she said.
Other Canadian killings

Two Canadians were shot and killed in Thailand last year.

Calgarian Leo Del Pinto died in Thailand in January 2008 following a confrontation with an off-duty police officer. Del Pinto, 24, died of two gunshot wounds to his face and torso in the northern Thai town of Pai.

In February, a Victoria man died from a gunshot wound to his head at his home in Ranong. Dale Henry, 48, worked for an oil drilling company in Nigeria, but split his time between that country and Thailand.

Henry's wife and two men have been charged in the case.
_____________________________________________________

Phuket Shooter Kills Expat Developer
PhuketWan.com/Shanya Phattrasaya and Apinya Saksri February 20, 2009

Update: Bangkok Police on Phuket for Asean are now investigating the murder

A CANADIAN property investor was shot dead on Thursday evening in Patong, police have told Phuketwan.

He was named as Francis Alex Degioanni, aged 34. He was an island resident, a ''rich'' businessman, and a former Bangkok model, married to a Thai national.


Francis Alex Degioanni poses as a model on jurgita.com

Phuket's Governor, Dr Preecha Ruangjan, on Friday called for police to solve the case as fast as possible.

On Saturday, Phuketwan was told that senior Royal Thai Police from Bangkok had taken charge of the case.

Coincidentally, senior police were on the island for the weekend's important gathering of Asean fiance ministers.

Because the case involves an expat and what appears to be a professional killer, senior police decided to upgrade the investigation and take it out of the hands of local police.

Earlier, Patong's Kathu police superintendent Grissak Songmoonark said he was called to the scene of the shooting about 6.45pm on Thursday.

At 162/11 Soi Ton Village, off Sirirat Road, he found a black Toyota pickup with bullet holes in the driver's seat.

Police told Phuketwan on Saturday that the victim had been hit by eight shots.

When police arrived, Mr Degioanni was in the care of Kusoldham Foundation paramedics. It is believed he died at the scene or on the way to hospital.

Police found a gun in the pickup. Mr Degioanni carried a gun, police said.

The man's wife, Nanthawadee Phenjaroenwattana, told police that she was in the pickup at the time of the shooting.

Two men approached on a motorcycle as the couple reached their home, and one man riding pillion started shooting, she said.

Her husband was a property developer in Canada who came to Thailand to live two years ago.

He travelled quite often between Canada and Thailand on business.

Khun Nanthawadee said her husband eventually opened a property business in Bangkok, Mafar Co Ltd, with a branch on Phuket.

He bought a townhouse on Phuket and used the townhouse as an office.

He also bought three rai in the Patong hills and was building a seven-storey development, in three phases, on the property.

Building began in the middle of 2008 and phase II was about to start, Khun Nanthawadee said.

Police believe the motive could concern Mr Degioanni's business and valued his estate at about 100 million baht.
_____________________________________________________

Patong Killers Strolled to Date with Death
PhuketWan.com Shanya Phattrasaya and Alan Morison Feb 21, 2009

THE KILLERS of a Canadian property developer in Patong parked their motorcycle some distance from the scene and strolled to meet their victim, Phuketwan has learned in visiting the scene today.

Usually, professional hired assassins strike from the back of a motorcycle, with the rider ready to make a speedy getaway.

The killers of Canadian property developer Francis Alex Degioanni parked their motorcycle about 60 metres from their target, and walked up the suburban street to their date with death.

It is even possible they had two getaway motorcycles, or a vehicle of a different kind.

It was Thursday evening, about 6.40pm, with dusk about to close in. February 19 marked Degioanni's 34th birthday, and he was all set to join friends who, unknown to him, had prepared a surprise birthday cake.

Outside a new three-storey block of townhouses, Degioanni had just parked his dusty black pickup diagonally, with his lucky 7777 numberplate just visible as the sun set.

Alongside the Degioanni office-home, with its glass windows and vertical blinds, the proprietress of the four-storey My Living Room hotel smiled as she saw the two men approaching, thinking they might be incoming guests.

Degioanni's Thai wife of five months, Nanthawadee Phenjaroenwattana, was out of the pickup and opening the door of the office-home when the two men drew level with the driver's side window.

Degioanni's young child, from a previous relationship, was said to be in the cabin of the pickup.

Not far from the scene, around a corner and up the hill, is Degioanni's seven-storey Panorama Condo building, where workers were still busy when Phuketwan passed today.

The killer (or killers) fired eight times, the marks of the bullethole entry points revealed today in the vehicle, impounded at Kathu Police Station.

One of several bullets that passed through the metal skin of the vehicle in exiting also pierced the metal rollerdoor shutter of the office next door.

If Khun Nanthawadee had been seated in the car, she would probably have been struck.

The men ran to their getaway vehicle, or vehicles, parked in front of the Bromma guesthouse on the corner, and took off.

The proprietress of the hotel, who smiled at the killers, told police they were most probably Thais but could have been Singaporeans or Philippinos.

The address at 162/11 Soi Ton Village, off Phang-Mung Sai Kor Road, the main road behind Jungceylon shopping mall, parallel to and between Nanai Road and Rat U Thit 200 Pee Road, is a neat suburban zone of new townhouses in a sea of development.

Dust covers everything around here in a fine layer as building projects of all kinds enter different stages of erection. Karaoke bars open alongside apartment blocks.

Closer to Jungceylon, there's a large and garishly decorated bar going in, along with a Thai boxing ring and what appear to be apartments above. Nearby is the Patong Snooker Club.

The neat two-storey townhomes in the block where the Degioannis moved in sometime before New Year are mostly filled with relatively prosperous Thai families.

The village has been open now for two years. One of the original home-makers, at a townhouse nearby, was an eye-witness - or rather, an ear-witness - to the killing.

''Khun Tum'' is as much of a name as he was prepared to give, fearing repercussions from the killers. Here's what he told us:

''I heard a gun go off several times. I heard someone [Khun Nanthawadee] shouting 'Help me! Help me!

''When I ran across the road, I saw her husband lying in the seat of the pickup. I checked his pulse.

''Mister! Mister! I called. But there was no pulse. His wife said 'Help me move him into the passenger's seat so we can drive to hospital.'

''But I said: 'It's no use. He is dead already.' She said: 'Don't say that! He's not dead! Please help!'

''I told her that if we moved the body, we would have problems with the police. Otherwise, the evidence might be disturbed.

''Then a bit later, the police came.

''The Canadian guy seemed nice. His wife had had an international education and dressed well. She could speak English very well and was clearly no bar girl.

''He always seemed to be working every day until midnight or one o'clock.. They were quiet neighbors, never a problem.

''The place inside was very well decorated, a nice place to live. They seemed very happy. They had a housekeeper who stayed there, too.''

As Phuketwan reported early on Saturday, senior police have taken over the investigation after a call from the Governor, Dr Preecha Ruangjan, for the case to be solved quickly.

Murders involving expats are rare on Phuket.

Clinton softens her tone on China

International Herald Tribune

The U.S. secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, center, on Friday with students and officials at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. (Lee Jin-man/The Associated Press)

BEIJING: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that the debate with China over human rights, Taiwan and Tibet should not be allowed to interfere with attempts to reach consensus on other, broader issues.

Shortly before arriving in Beijing on the last leg of her inaugural trip abroad as America's top diplomat, Clinton said that she would raise those contentious issues, but noted that neither side was likely to give ground on them.

Instead, she said, it might be better to agree to disagree on longstanding positions and focus instead on American-Chinese engagement on climate change, the global financial crisis and security threats.

Her comments drew immediate negative reaction from human rights advocates who were hoping for a repeat of the stance she took nearly 15 years ago when she was first lady and publicly took on and angered the Chinese government in a tough speech on this issue.

But in surprisingly candid remarks, she said that each side already knew the other's longstanding divergent positions on those matters and that progress might be more achievable by concentrating on other areas where Washington and Beijing could work together.

"There is a certain logic to that," Clinton said in Seoul, immediately before leaving for Beijing.

"That doesn't mean that questions of Taiwan, Tibet, human rights, the whole range of challenges that we often engage on with the Chinese, are not part of the agenda," she said. "But we pretty much know what they're going to say."

"We have to continue to press them," she added. "But our pressing on those issues can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crises. We have to have a dialogue that leads to an understanding and cooperation on each of those."

In her remarks, Clinton stressed that she had never shied away from bringing up human rights issues with China, recalling her 1995 speech to the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing that so angered the authorities that they pulled the plug on live television coverage of it.

"I made a speech about women's rights and human rights," she said. "I have had firsthand experience with some of the reactions" to criticism.

Clinton will be in Beijing for two days of meetings with senior Chinese officials, with a focus on climate change, the financial crisis and efforts to bring North Korea back to disarmament talks.

Earlier Friday in Seoul, Clinton warned that as long as North Korea continued insulting South Korea, it would never improve relations with the United States.

Clinton also called the Communist government's rule a "tyranny" but repeated the new U.S. administration's offer to normalize relations, sign a peace treaty and provide major assistance if North Korea abandoned its nuclear weapons programs.

"North Korea is not going to get a different relationship with the United States while insulting and refusing dialogue with" Seoul, Clinton said at a news conference with the South Korean foreign minister, Yu Myung Hwan. "The most immediate issue is to continue the disablement of their nuclear facilities and to get a complete and verifiable agreement as to the end of their nuclear program."

Clinton's comment was expected to calm South Koreans who have grown increasingly uneasy over North Korea's recent harsh rhetoric against the South, including threats of naval clashes, and its reported preparations to launch a long-range missile. She called Pyongyang's saber-rattling "provocative" and "unhelpful," and praised the South Korean government for its restraint.

But her use of "tyranny" - a term often used by the Bush administration regarding North Korea - and her earlier public comments about a possible power struggle in Pyongyang to succeed the country's ailing leader, Kim Jong Il, were likely to anger North Korea.

There was no immediate North Korean reaction Friday to Clinton's comments.

Clinton met Friday with the commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, General Walter Sharp, to assess the threat of the possible North Korean missile launch. She also had a meeting with the South Korean president, Lee Myung Bak, during which the North's missile and nuclear threats loomed large.

Shoichi Nakagawa needed a drink to get through it

From The Times

Nobody likes a censure motion and when he wakes up this morning Shoichi Nakagawa's world is going to look comprehensively – some would say deservedly – awful.

Was it booze or cough medicine that caused the Finance Minister's astonishing drawly buffoonery in Rome? We may never find out but what we do know is that, whichever bottle he did hit between lunch and that fateful Saturday press conference, Mr Nakagawa's world was pretty awful beforehand.

Place yourself, for a slurred second, in his shoes as he boarded that plane from Tokyo to Rome on Friday. Disappearing behind him was the country whose finances he was charged with running – a country spiralling into its steepest economic nosedive and the worst quarterly decline in Japanese GDP for 35 years. Neither he, nor seemingly anyone around him, has any bright ideas about which buttons to press to even restart the engines, let alone navigate to safety.

And he will have known just how much public scorn and disappointment he was flying away from: Mr Nakagawa is the wing man of a Prime Minister who is rapidly emerging as the most unpopular in history. Tens of thousands of Japanese are losing their jobs and blaming, among others, Mr Nakagawa's Finance Ministry.

And looking ahead to landing in Rome, Japan's Finance Minister will surely have groaned at the looming ordeal: a litany of predictable handwringing by a parade of flint-faced financial leaders at a grim beano nobody wanted to attend. The world is in abject crisis and he must have known there was little he or Japan could do to beam light into the depression. The gathering of international supremos will have reminded him that he is not, by any means, the sort of international financial statesman required of an economic powerhouse like Japan.

Of course, he should never have been allowed to appear in that state in public, and the incident smacks of stupendous lack of judgment at best and contempt at worst. Whatever Mr Nakagawa's poison was – merlot, malt whisky or medicine – a good many of us may sympathise with the idea that some liquid may have been required to see him through the weekend from hell.

Shoichi Nakagawa to resign as Japanese Finance Minister over 'drunken' performance at G7

From Times Online

Japan's Finance Minister has said that he will resign later this year amid a spiralling furore over what appeared to be drunken behaviour at last weekend's G7 summit in Rome.

Shoichi Nakagawa's resignation could not come at a more fragile time for the government of Prime Minister Taro Aso – a leader who is fast becoming Japan's most unpopular ever, and who stands accused by the public of dithering on solving the country's rapidly deteriorating economic problems.

Mr Nakagawa's decision to step down came ahead of an opposition-led censure motion against him, which he will almost certainly lose tomorrow.

Mr Nakagawa, who was sticking today with his excuse that a combination of jetlag and cough mixture got the better of him, said that he would stay on in the Cabinet until parliament gave the green light to a supplementary budget aimed at steering Japan out of the sharpest recessionary plunge in its history.

A number of politicians have come forward today with annecdotal evidence of Mr Nakagawa's odd behaviour – he has, for example, been spotted bumping into the doorframes along the corridors of power.

Kenji Yamaoka, head of the parliamentary affairs committee of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, said yesterday that there was "nobody in the Diet [parliament] who did not know" about Mr Nakagawa's fondness for a tipple.

Video footage has also surfaced of an incident in parliament in 2006 when Mr Nakagawa stopped speaking during a speech and stood silent and virtually motionless for about half a minute before sitting down. At the time, he blamed medicine he was taking for back pain.

Monday's quarterly GDP figures showed Japan's exports – the engine of national growth – sliding at record pace. Tokyo stocks tumbled on the combined miseries of an economy in distress and the lack of a steady rudder in government.

In addition to the growing financial turmoil gripping Japan, over the past three years the leadership of the country has changed three times, with countless cabinet reshuffles and resignations in between.

No names have been suggested as a replacement for Mr Nakagawa, whose departure will leave a "talent void" in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, analysts say.

In a hastily convened press conference today, Mr Nakagawa apologised "for causing such a big fuss". But in what appeared to be confirmation of public and parliamentary suspicions that he was indeed drunk during his Rome press conference, he hinted that may soon hospitalise himself to "prevent myself doing any further damage".

Rumours regarding Mr Nakagawa's fondness for alcohol have been swirling in political circles for many years. The former prime minister, Yoshiro Mori, said yesterday that he was aware of the Finance Minister's fondness for a drink and had previously warned him not to overdo things.

Although Mr Aso said today that he had no plans to sack his close confidant and ally, Mr Nakagawa's performance in Rome has already drawn heavy criticism from other members of the Cabinet.

"The TV footage was shocking," Seiko Noda, the Consumer Minister, said. "A Cabinet minister must be fit and he needs more self control."

Taiwan Lantern Festival

Tram for Chinatown will be in service this month

The Nation Feb 7, 2009
The project to develop Bangkok's Yaowarat area is more than halfway complete and the "red route" tram service should be running by the end of this month, a senior official said Thursday.
Samphanthawong district office director Prasert Inthusoma said that of the project's nine tasks, the renovation of the Chinese arch to mark HM the King's birthday should be finished by March 16, cars had been banned on the arch roundabout from yesterday; and the tram service to transport tourists from Hualumpong subway station to Yaowarat was scheduled to start running in the next few weeks.

 

BahtSold.com

Thai police arrest alleged mastermind in shooting of US citizen

By Deutsche Presse Agentur
Bangkok - Thai immigration police on Thursday arrested the alleged mastermind of a murder attempt on an US citizen, a case the prime minister last week ordered the police to prioritize.

Janpen Oxley, 48, the Thai wife of British national Darren Oxley, was arrested at 7 am Thursday at Aranyaprathet on the Thai-Cambodian border.

 

"Janpen asked for an entry stamp to Cambodia but when her name popped up on the computer there was an alert that an arrest warrant had been issued for her," Immigration Police Lieutenant Colonel Benjapol Lortsawat said in a telephone interview from Aranyaprathet, 200 kilometres east of Bangkok.
"She had been waiting at the border checkpoint since 4 am," said Benjapol. "Janpen told immigration officials she wanted to get in to Poipet to help a friend who had lost her money at the casinos." Poipet, Cambodia, is a popular gambling destination for Thais.
Janpen is the alleged mastermind behind the attempted murder of Donald Whiting in Hua Hin, a beach resort 130 kilometres south-west of Bangkok, on October 24.
Thai police on Tuesday arrested three suspected gunmen in the shooting of Whiting, 65, who was embroiled in two property disputes in Hua Hin, an upmarket beach resort that has become popular among foreign retirees.
The three suspects confessed to having been hired by Janpen to kill Whiting for 200,000 baht (5,714 dollars).
Police have also issued an arrest warrant for Oxley, a British national who has invested in several housing developments in Hua Hin.
Whiting had bought a house from Oxley but complained he had been overcharged for water supplies.
Whiting, an ex-marine who has been living in Hua Hin for the past five years, was involved in a second property dispute with another foreign developer who had been contracted to build a 13.6-million-baht villa in the resort for him and his wife Dolly Samson.
The US couple claim that the contractor took their money and left them with an unfinished, sub-standard concrete monstrosity instead of the Thai-Bali style mansion they had dreamed of.
Whiting was a frequent contributor to websites dedicated to complaints about property scams at Hua Hin.
Whiting's car was set on fire in July 2008, and shortly afterwards he was shot in the neck, leaving him partially paralysed. He was shot a day before a court hearing in which he was scheduled to open a lawsuit against Janpen and her husband.
Property scams have been widely reported in Hua Hin, known as the "royal resort," a favourite summer retreat for Thai high society. More recently it has drawn a plethora of world-class hotel chains and posh boutique getaways.
The Whiting case was one of four unsolved crimes that newly appointed Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva last week ordered the national police chief to solve.
The other cases include the slaying of four Saudi nationals in 1989 and 1990, the disappearance and suspected murder of human rights lawyer Somchai Neelpaijit in 2004 and the 2003 slaying of Kornthep Viriya, a shipping agent and key witness in a tax evasion case against a company owned by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

BahtSold.com

Thai academic accused of insulting monarchy flees

By AMBIKA AHUJA,Associated Press Writer AP

BANGKOK - A prominent academic facing 15 years in prison for allegedly insulting Thailand's monarchy fled to England, saying Monday he does not believe he will receive a fair trial.

 

Ji Ungpakorn, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, was charged last month under the so-called lese majeste law over a book about Thailand's 2006 military coup. His case is the latest in a spate of prosecutions and increased censorship of Web sites allegedly critical of the royal family.

"There is no justice in Thailand," said Ji in an e-mail sent Monday to The Associated Press. "The regime seems to be inching toward a police state."

Thailand is a constitutional monarchy but has severe lese majeste laws, mandating a jail term of three to 15 years for "whoever defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir to the throne or the Regent."

Until recently, prosecutions under the law were uncommon in a country where 81-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej _ the world's longest serving head of state _ is almost universally revered.

Police Lt. Gen. Wacharapon Prasatrachakit, a police spokesman, denied the charge that Ji would not receive a fair trial.

"There is no reason to believe he will not receive a fair trial. We have to look into the complaint, like every other complaint, and give everyone their chance to defend themselves. This case is no different," he said. He declined to elaborate on the case.

Ji, who holds both Thai and British citizenship, has led a campaign to abolish the law. He said he was targeted for political reasons because his 2007 book, "A Coup for the Rich," criticized the military for ousting then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

In the book, he indirectly questioned the palace's role in Thai politics during the period.

Australian writer Harry Nicolaides was sent to prison for three years last month for defaming the monarchy in a novel that sold just seven copies. A BBC reporter is among others charged recently.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government has announced plans to block alleged anti-monarchist Web sites, raising hackles among freedom of speech proponents.

Although he does not have much official power, Bhumibol _ with the backing of the military _ has since the 1960s held substantial political influence, usually exercised only in times of national crisis.

But his influence was challenged by the rise of billionaire politician Thaksin, who became prime minister in 2001. Thaksin won the following of the country's rural majority with populist policies, including low-cost universal health care.

A PROTESTER threw a SHOE at Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on his final day in Britain yesterday.

By GEORGE PASCOE-WATSON
Political Editor

The trainer landed a few feet from Mr Wen as he gave a speech at Cambridge University.

It was an echo of the protest against ex-US President George Bush, who ducked a shoe in Iraq in December.

Trade boost ... Mr Wen and PM meet for talks

Mr Wen — who had earlier lectured PM Gordon Brown for pushing the world’s economy to the brink of disaster — branded the ambush “despicable” last night.

Onlookers said the human rights protester stood up and shouted: “How can you listen to this unchallenged?”

He accused the Chinese leader of being a dictator. Others in the audience jeered at officials who bundled him out, yelling: “Shame on you.”

Police arrested the man on suspicion of committing a public order offence.

Welcome ... Chinese flags are waved outside Downing Street

He was being questioned last night. Earlier Mr Wen issued a blistering attack on Britain’s policies of sky-high borrowing and spending.

Standing next to Mr Brown at the Foreign Office in London, he said the West’s economic bubble was bound to burst — with catastrophic consequences.

Asked if capitalism was to blame for the global slump, the Chinese Premier said: “Some economies have imbalances in their economic structure. They have been overspending by borrowing.

“Some financial institutions pursued profit in a blind way without effective regulation. They have been using excessive leverage to gain huge profits, but once the bubble burst, the world was exposed to disasters.

“This financial crisis has given us some hard lessons.

War footing ... ex-president ducks shoe in Iraq

“It does show how dangerous a totally unregulated market can be. It brings disastrous consequences.”

Mr Wen said the world’s financial system must now be reshaped as “fair and equitable”, promoting development in poor countries.

The criticism cast a shadow over Mr Brown’s boast that British exports to China would double to £10billion over the next two years.

The PM also announced business secretary Lord Mandelson and nuclear energy secretary Ed Miliband would visit Beijing in April.

He said: “The strength of the relationship between China and Britain will be a pivotal force in helping us through the downturn.”

Mr Wen’s three-day visit has been dogged by protests over human rights and Chinese policy in Tibet.

Mr Brown said he had raised the issue of human rights with Mr Wen.

g.pascoe-watson@the-sun.co.uk

 

Shoe threw that? ... trainer

In Japan, you are what your blood type is

By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press Writer

TOKYO – In Japan, "What's your type?" is much more than small talk; it can be a paramount question in everything from matchmaking to getting a job.

By type, the Japanese mean blood type, and no amount of scientific debunking can kill a widely held notion that blood tells all.

In the year just ended, four of Japan's top 10 best-sellers were about how blood type determines personality, according to Japan's largest book distributor, Tohan Co. The books' publisher, Bungeisha, says the series — one each for types B, O, A, and AB — has combined sales of well over 5 million copies.

Taku Kabeya, chief editor at Bungeisha, thinks the appeal comes from having one's self-image confirmed; readers discover the definition of their blood type and "It's like 'Yes, that's me!'"

As defined by the books, type As are sensitive perfectionists but overanxious; Type Bs are cheerful but eccentric and selfish; Os are curious, generous but stubborn; and ABs are arty but mysterious and unpredictable.

All that may sound like a horoscope, but the public doesn't seem to care.

Even Prime Minister Taro Aso seems to consider it important enough to reveal in his official profile on the Web. He's an A. His rival, opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa, is a B.

Nowadays blood type features in a Nintendo DS game and on "lucky bags" of women's accessories tailored to blood type and sold at Tokyo's Printemps department store. A TV network is set to broadcast a comedy about women seeking husbands according to blood type.

It doesn't stop there.

Matchmaking agencies provide blood-type compatibility tests, and some companies make decisions about assignments based on employees' blood types.

Children at some kindergartens are divided up by blood type, and the women's softball team that won gold at the Beijing Olympics used the theory to customize each player's training.

Not all see the craze as harmless fun, and the Japanese now have a term, "bura-hara," meaning blood-type harassment.

And, despite repeated warnings, many employers continue to ask blood types at job interviews, said Junichi Wadayama, an official at the Health, Welfare and Labor Ministry.

"It's so widespread that most people, even company officials, are not aware that asking blood types could lead to discrimination," Wadayama said.

Blood types, determined by the proteins in the blood, have nothing to do with personality, said Satoru Kikuchi, associate professor of psychology at Shinshu University.

"It's simply sham science," he said. "The idea encourages people to judge others by the blood types, without trying to understand them as human beings. It's like racism."

This use of blood-typing has unsavory roots.

The theory was imported from Nazi race ideologues and adopted by Japan's militarist government in the 1930s to breed better soldiers. The idea was scrapped years later and the craze faded.

It resurfaced in the 1970s, however, as Masahiko Nomi, an advocate with no medical background, gave the theory mass appeal. His son, Toshitaka, now promotes it through a private group, the Human Science ABO Center, saying it's not intended to rank or judge people but to smooth relationships and help make the best of one's talents.

The books tend to stop short of blood-type determinism, suggesting instead that while blood type creates personality tendencies, it's hardly definitive.

"Good job, you're done. So how do you feel about the results?" one blood type manual asks on its closing page. "Your type, after all, is what you decide you are."

Bumbling Taro Aso becomes Japan's answer to George Bush

From The Times

Bumbling Taro Aso becomes Japan's answer to George Bush

(Eitan Abramovich/AFP/Getty Images)

Taro Aso is gaining a reputation for his Bush-style malapropisms

Richard Lloyd Parry in Tokyo

It was a crucial speech and as Taro Aso, the Japanese Prime Minister, stood up in parliament he was determined to get it right. Reading from a carefully worded document he proclaimed that his Government, like those before it, offered its sincere apology and remorse for the cruelties of the Second World War.

Between the writing on the page and the words which came out of the Prime Minister’s mouth, however, something went terribly wrong. Mr Aso had intended to say that he would follow (toushu in Japanese) the established statement of official apology. Instead, he mispronounced the word as fushu — meaning the stink of decay. “I support apology for the war” came out as something close to “I stench apology for the war”. It did not end there.

In the four months since he became Prime Minister Mr Aso has become notorious for the Japanese equivalent of George Bush’s bloopers. He has spoken of his hopes for “cumbersome meetings” with the Chinese Government, instead of “frequent meetings”. He has mangled the word “sluggish” into “slaggish”. His malapropisms have spurred a publishing boom, as hundreds of thousands of Japanese strive to avoid the same humiliating mistakes.

The Asoisms derive from the Japanese tongue’s unique way of using kanji — the Japanese characters that form the basis of the written language. In Chinese each character has a fixed pronunciation, but in Japanese the same character can be read in as many as nine different ways, depending on how it is combined with other kanji to form words.

 

Children, and foreign students of Japanese, often work out these pronun- ciations with the help of a phonetic syllabary. Adults, and certainly prime ministers, are expected to be able to know how each kanji should be read in a particular compound.

Most mistakes are at worst inconvenient, but some can be disastrous. The mother of all bloopers was perpetrated by a television announcer. Pointing to a sober graph of population changes, the woman referred to the “baby-boomer generation” (dankai no sedai) as dankon no sedai — the penis generation.

As a result of Mr Aso’s ideographic inadequacies, Japan’s publishers are enjoying a kanji boom, with books about the written language soaring up the bestseller lists. One title, Commonly Misread Kanji that You Think You Can Read but Can’t, has gone into its fifteenth edition and sold 600,000 copies in three months, bucking an overall slump in book sales.

Although it has no connection with Mr Aso, bookshops report that customers often ask for it as “the Prime Minister’s book”. Last month a member of the Opposition stood up in parliament brandishing a white board of tricky kanji to test the Prime Minister on the spot — he declined the challenge — and parents report that the name Taro has become a schoolboy’s taunt for a playground dunce.

No leader needs this kind of ribaldry but Mr Aso can afford it less than most. Since coming to power last September his approval rating has shrivelled from more than 80 per cent to below 20 per cent. Several key members of his Liberal Democratic Party are talking of rebellion.

It is assumed by many that he will go down in history as the leader who presided over the electoral defeat, and probably the destruction, of the LDP after 53 years of almost uninterrupted power.

This is partly a result of misfortunes beyond Mr Aso’s control such as the global economic crisis, which is hitting Japanese manufacturing, including household names such as Sony and Toyota, far harder than expected. Yesterday the electronics giant Panasonic announced that it is to close 27 factories and sack 15,000 workers across the world, half in Japan.

It also stems from Mr Aso’s failure to grasp the tenor of the times, and his high-handed bumptiousness when many Japanese are feeling humbled and insecure. The expression for this is KY or kuuki yomenai — “can’t read the situation”. In Mr Aso’s case it has taken on a second meaning “kanji yomenai”, or “can’t read kanji”.

Kanji mistakes that could get you into trouble

Date-otoko (dandy) mispronounced as itachi-otoko (weasel man). As in, "Section Chief Suzuki, may I say that you look quite the man weasel in that bow tie!"

Chinju (exotic animal) for chincho (esteemed, appreciated). "Caviar is an exotic Russian animal."

Dankon no sedai (penis generation) for Dankai no sedai (baby boomer generation). "Bill Clinton is an outstanding member of the penis generation."