Free Republic

An owner of the local Thai Ginger restaurant chain was arrested Tuesday morning and is due to appear in federal court in Seattle on various immigration-related charges for allegedly arranging “sham marriages.” In an indictment unsealed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle, Varee Bradford, who operates the Thai Ginger restaurants, and Porramin Tangchaiwanna, known as “Golf,” were charged with conspiracy to commit immigration fraud. Bradford was charged with several additional counts of fraud relating to immigration documents. According to the indictment, the two offered to pay employees of Thai Ginger $15,000 to $25,000 to enter into sham marriages with...

Thai chillies trigger London chemical scare By Sally Peck Last Updated: 12:38pm BST 03/10/2007 Police cordoned off three streets and firefighters smashed down a door after reports of a chemical attack on a busy shopping street in London's Soho. Chalemchai Tangjariyapoon was cooking 9lbs of chillies But instead of a terrorist attack or a toxic leak, all police found was a Thai cook preparing chilli sauce. Emergency workers wearing protective breathing masks were called to D'Arblay Street on Monday evening after members of the public detected an acrid cloud of smoke. A Hazardous Area Response Team was dispatched and specialist...

European faces jail for insulting Thai king By A Special Correspondent in Chiang Mai Last Updated: 2:15pm GMT 12/03/2007 A Swiss man today admitted five charges of insulting Thailand's revered king by spray-painting posters of the monarch on the evening of his birthday. Oliver Jufer is facing up to 15 years in prison Oliver Jufer, 57, who has been held in prison for more than three months, appeared at Chiang Mai provincial court in shackles and a brown inmate's uniform, for a secret session. Members of the public and journalists were barred from the hearing, and earlier court officials told...

The government yesterday decided to lift martial law in Bangkok and 40 other provinces including the capital's immediate neighbours. However, 35 provinces remain fully or partly under martial law due to security concerns including drugs, illegal trade and the government's suspicions about potential threats from supporters of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The government's decision came one day after the Council for National Security (CNS) forwarded its recommendation that martial law be lifted in 48 provinces and retained in 28 other provinces, including Bangkok. Yesterday's cabinet resolution to partially lift martial law will not take effect until there is royal...

Thailand's interim government has set up an ambitious timetable to achieve both full restoration of democracy and public approval of a redrafted constitution within one year of the military coup that toppled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The coup, which ousted the prime minister while he was at the United Nations in September, elicited a warranted condemnation from Washington. The onus will remain on Thailand's appointed government to faithfully follow the timeline, which outlines the path back from military rule to liberal democracy. The coup arose out of a "political stalemate," claimed Ambassador Virasakdi Futrakul during a meeting with editors and...

Thailand was named as a potential nuclear power in a report this morning by the head of the United Nations nuclear agency. Speaking at a conference on tightening controls against nuclear proliferation, Mohamed ElBaradei said as many as 30 countries could soon have technology allowing them to produce atomic weapons "in a very short time" - and listed Thailand among them. Mr ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency and winner of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize , called the countries "virtual new weapons states." It was unclear and not explained how Thailand got onto the list, since it...

AP) BANGKOK, Thailand The military has agreed to hold talks with Muslim rebels involved in a bloody insurgency in southern Thailand, the powerful army chief said Thursday, reversing a policy of the elected government deposed in a coup last month. Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin, who led the bloodless Sept. 19 coup against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said that officials from certain rebel factions had contacted a top army officer and requested talks. He did not indicate if any date had been set. "I have agreed to the talks," Sondhi said. "I stress that these will be talks, not negotiations." Wan...

Thai soldiers presented the smiling face of the military coup, posing for photographs with hands held high in mock surrender in an apparent charm offensive by their leaders. Thai media reported that troops had been told to "keep smiling," and newspapers were filled with pictures of soldiers demonstrating weaponry to curious crowds. Troops handed over their berets and guns to locals as schoolchildren gathered to peer into their tanks on their way to school, according to news reports. The Bangkok Post said coup leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin and an army radio programme had both urged the troops to smile to...

Military coup leaders in Thailand — often called the "Land of Smiles" — apparently don't want to ruin that image. They've ordered soldiers to smile. Army radio broadcasts are reminding soldiers to be friendly and courteous, especially to children and anyone who wants to take pictures with them...

Thai school students pose with Thai soldiers on an armored vehicle manning a street in the northern Thai province of Chiang Mai, the hometown of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted from a coup Friday, Sept. 22, 2006. Family members of deposed Thaksin are still in Thailand amid speculation that they stayed behind to protect his vast assets against possible confiscation by the country's new military rulers, officials and local media said Saturday. (AP Photo/Wichai Taprieu)

THAILAND’S new military leaders yesterday moved to tighten their grip on power, restricting political activities and taking over legislative powers as former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra broke his silence on his ousting, saying that he would be taking a “deserved rest”. With Thaksin laying low in London after his Tuesday night overthrow, the coup leaders moved to place the tycoon-turned-politician’s vast assets under scrutiny, amid mounting calls for his prosecution for alleged corruption. In Bangkok, a spokesman for the coup group — which yesterday released the official English translation of its name, the Council for Democratic Reform under Constitutional Monarchy...

Thai PM begins new regime in exile Richard Lloyd Parry, David Brown and Richard Beeston September 21, 2006 THAILAND'S deposed Prime Minister began a new life as a political refugee in London last night, where he started to rally supporters and took the first steps towards establishing a government in exile. As the leader of the military coup tightened his grip over the country and announced that a new Prime Minister would be appointed in two weeks’ time, Thaksin Shinawatra touched down at Gatwick from New York. He was accompanied by several aides and was expected to be joined by...

BANGKOK, Thailand - The Thai military launched a coup against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Tuesday night, circling his offices with tanks, seizing control of TV stations and declaring a provisional authority pledging loyalty to the king. The army commander took over the government and declared martial law. An announcement on Thai television declared that a "Council of Administrative Reform" with King Bhumibol Adulyadej as head of state had seized power in Bangkok and nearby provinces without any resistance. "The armed forces commander and the national police commander have successfully taken over Bangkok and the surrounding area in order to...

CHARLOTTE -- A University-area restaurant employee was treated for minor injuries following an explosion Wednesday night. An employee of the Thai House, in the Grand Promenade shopping center, stayed after hours to do some cleaning and the explosion was triggered when the employee set off 20 aerosol pesticide defoggers too close to the pilot light of a gas stove. “When it was contacted by the pilot lights on the gas equipment, it caused sort of a spontaneous explosion,” said property manager Mark Hanna. Firefighters at Station 27, which is within walking distance of the restaurant, say they felt the explosion....

Thailand's far south is caught up in a separatist insurgency that has claimed the lives of 1,300 people in less than three years. In the first of a series of articles from the region, the BBC's Kate McGeown looks at how the violence is affecting local people. Every day Maikhao Maungrong and Dayoh Daeyo sell their produce side-by-side in Narathiwat market. Over the years they have got to know each other well, whiling away the time by gossiping about their lives. They also share a common concern about the attacks going on around them - the bombings, shootings and other...

Nakhon Ratchasima _ Police raided an isolated hut in a national park yesterday seizing a large cache of weapons and ammunition and arresting a man accused of supplying arms to separatists in the deep South. The operation in Tab Lan National Park, in Khon Buri district, followed a tip-off that firearms were being smuggled into the country from Cambodia, police said. The weapons were said to have been shipped through Sa Kaeo's Ta Phraya and Aranyaprathet districts and were about to be sent to the restive South. Police said they arrested Somsak Thawornrat as he attemped to flee and seized...

The Karen Women's Organization is investigating allegations that a 14-year-old Burmese Karen girl was raped by a Thai soldier on Monday, one day after Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had visited her refugee camp. KWO officer Ler Pwe, who has taken responsibility for the case, told The Irrawaddy that the rape occurred near the Mae La refugee camp on the Thai/Burmese border, when the girl, who had only been at the camp for one month, was out herding goats with her 7-year-old brother. A Thai soldier is believed to have approached the pair, raped the girl twice and offered 30...

N Korea 'kidnapped Thai woman' Anocha Panjoy's family have not seen her for nearly 30 years Thailand's government is investigating claims that a Thai woman missing since 1978 was kidnapped by North Korean agents and is now living there. Relatives of the woman, Anocha Panjoy, were alerted to her possible fate by an article written by a US man who recently left North Korea. Pyongyang has already "informally denied" abducting the woman, said Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkon. North Korea has previously admitted kidnapping Japanese and South Koreans. The missing Thai woman, Anocha Panjoy, 51, lived in Sankampaeng district in...

THAILAND & INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC FRONT by B.Raman Indicators available since March, 2002, that the International Islamic Front (IIF) formed by Osama bin Laden in 1998 has been trying to extend its activities to southern Thailand have now been strengthened by the recent recrudescence of acts of violence in southern Thailand. 2. These indicators spoke of a surprisingly large number of Muslims from Thailand studying in the madrasas of Pakistan, some of them run by the five Pakistani components of the IIF. These components are the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), which has now been co-ordinating the activities of the IIF due to the...

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Ties between Malaysia and Thailand soured further this week over mounting unrest in southern Thailand, and the Thai foreign minister said on Tuesday the row needed to be quickly resolved. The neighbours are both founder members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and have long had friendly relations, but an insurgency by Muslims in southern Thailand, which borders Muslim-majority Malaysia, has become a cause for concern. More than 900 people have died in 21 months of unrest in the Buddhist kingdom's south. Rebels killed a monk and two teenagers in a...

Some 3,000 "core militants" received military training in Libya before joining the Islamic insurgency in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, a top general said Wednesday. "The militants have advanced over the last 20 years, as the core members went to receive military training in Libya for four years, just like our soldiers train," General Panlop Pinmanee told a seminar of 100 security officials. "When they returned they became the chief operators in the south. Those militants have (the) same capacity as our commandos. There are 1,000 of them in each province and all together there are 30,000 sympathisers across three provinces," he...

Five rangers were killed and one seriously wounded at a checkpoint in Narathiwat's Cho Airong district late yesterday. The attack occurred about 6pm when a group of about 10 men arrived in a pick-up truck at a checkpoint on the Yaning-Cho Airong road, police said. When rangers manning the checkpoint walked up to the vehicle, the men opened fire, killing five and seriously wounding one of them. The assailants then fled. In Yala's Krong Pinang district, the decapitated body of an elderly unidentified man was found yesterday by the side of a road. He was apparently the victim of a...

BANGKOK, Thailand - Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has long complained of press criticism. But he sought to turn the tables Thursday with a new tactic - sounding a buzzer every time reporters ask questions he deems "not constructive." To the surprise of journalists and colleagues alike, Thaksin raised a handheld buzzer - which displayed an "X" sign - from behind the podium to indicate his disapproval of some questions asked at the first in a new series of weekly news conferences. The button-pushing Thaksin sounded the alarm when a Thai newspaperman asked why the government had failed to seek...

Thailand's prime minister is trying to ferret out a government minister who allegedly had a penis enlargement operation, saying news of it is affecting the Cabinet's reputation, a news report said on Wednesday. "Who did it? Tell me," Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra asked his ministers at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, triggering a round of banter and causing some to squirm in their chairs, The Nation newspaper said. Last week, a woman -- being sued for defamation by a clinic after she claimed it gave her

BANGKOK, Thailand - Farmer Amphol Wangboon was hesitant to give up his beloved Thong Khaow for marriage until he found her the perfect match and a dowry he couldn't refuse: truckloads of fresh grass, hay, maize and $2,400. So Thong Khaow and her new mate, Thong Kham — a pair of rare dwarf Brahman cattle — were married Sunday morning in a traditional Thai ceremony featuring a banquet for more than 2,000 human guests in central Sa Kaew province. The animals wore silk outfits and jasmine garlands. Other beasts, including goats, also attended the wedding. Amphol said Thong Kham's owner,...

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Attackers in southern Thailand slashed the necks of a couple, almost severing their heads in the latest killings attributed to Islamic separatists in the region, police said Friday. The couple, Jad Suwanchatri, 52, and his wife, Serm, 51, had stopped their motorcycle to clear a log from a road in Yala province when assailants shot Jad and then cut the throats of the couple, police Lt. Somporn Ritthirat said Friday. The couple's dog, which was in a sidecar, also was slashed to death, he said. The couple were rubber plantation workers, Buddhists and members of a...

Beheadings 'aim to force out Thai Buddhists' By Sebastien Berger in Bangkok (Filed: 24/06/2005) Islamist militants in southern Thailand are trying to terrify Buddhist residents into fleeing, its prime minister said yesterday after a man was publicly beheaded. The murder of Lek Pongpla, 34, in Narathiwat province was the fifth beheading in a fortnight and the first to be carried out before a witness. Two men arrived on a motorcycle at the teashop in Cho-Ai-Rong, and one shot the victim in the back before decapitating him and putting the head into a fertiliser sack. The men fled and the sack...

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - A lawmaker from Thailand's ruling party fell to his death Wednesday from his 10th floor apartment, followed a few hours later by a woman with whom he had been quarreling, police said. The body of Attapol Sanitwongchai, a 39-year-old member of the Thai Rak Thai Party, was found on the ground outside his Bangkok condominium, police Lt. Col. Sompatara Thongkomol said. Police are investigating whether Attapol jumped or was pushed, he said. The lawmaker from northeastern Udon Thani province had quarreled with a woman in the apartment before plunging to his death, police said. After Attapol's...

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Suspected Islamic separatists beheaded a man at a teashop Wednesday and then left his head in a sack on the side of the road, the latest in a series of bold attacks across southern Thailand defying government attempts to restore peace. In separate incidents also attributed to suspected Islamic militants, two bombs were detonated in Narathiwat province, injuring eight people, including two Buddhist monks. Lek Pongpla, 34, a clothes vendor from northern Thailand, was shot twice before two attackers cut off his head in the teashop in Narathiwat's Joh Irong district, said police Lt. Wattana Ketamphai,...

BANGKOK, Thailand - Thai policemen with waistlines larger than 40 inches have been ordered to reduce their weight in order to look good when they direct traffic, the police department announced Tuesday. Recent medical examinations of 4,150 police officers in Bangkok found that 49 percent have high cholesterol and are overweight, which is "an obstacle" in directing traffic, said a statement from the Metropolitan Police Bureau. Eighty-eight of the overweight officers whose waistlines ranged between 40 and 49 inches were ordered to join the "Smart Police," a one-month weight-loss program. Participants will have to eat according to doctors' instructions and...

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained for a total of9 years and 237 days Free Aung San Suu Kyi! Email General Than Shwe

Open Letter to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee Date: 3.5.2005 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee Case Postale 2500 CH-1211 Geneva 2 Depot Suisse Subject: Request for regaining of losing status and safety of life for POCs (person of concerned) at UNHCR Around 8:45 P.M on 27 April 2005 a group of drunken Thai militias who are guarding our Ban Don Yang refugee camp threatened Mr. Khin Mg Win (NI-50280) with gun at his temporary shelter inside the camp and fired three shots without reason. Khin Mg Win was a member of ABFSU (All Burma Federation of Student Unions)...

“For sale or rent: beautiful girls, 7 and 8 years old. Trained to please.” There are no such overt signs in the villages of northern Thailand, but word of mouth advertising brings plenty of ‘customers.’ Selling his young daughter into prostitution can earn a man enough money to build a house and support himself and his family the rest of their lives. To Shelbyville’s Ted and Ann Lewis, parents of two daughters, such actions are incomprehensible. They, the Rev. Bryan Nerren and others from Bedford and nearby counties have stepped up to do something about it. That “something” is helping...

KHAO LAK, Thailand (Reuters) -- Rescuers have saved a dolphin swept over a Thai beach by the tsunami that devastated shores around the Indian Ocean, but failed on Wednesday to find her calf in a filthy lake left behind by the giant wave. http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/01/05/tsunami.dolphins.reut/index.html

YALA, Thailand (Reuters) - Buddhists in Thailand's Muslim-majority south say they are being treated like "third class citizens" as the government struggles to end ten months of ethnic and religious unrest which has claimed nearly 500 lives. Fear has descended on the three southernmost provinces near the Malaysian border, and Thai Buddhists, who make up just 20 percent of the mainly Malay-speaking region's 1.8 million population, believe their plight is being ignored. Many of them are second or third generation Chinese Thais who form the backbone of the local economy -- entrepreneurs running everything from grocery shops to construction firms,...

A Thai Buddhist was gunned down in the southern province of Pattani yesterday, a day after Thai Queen Sirikit made an emotional appeal to stop the slaughter of Buddhists in the deep South. Clashes in the South have claimed up to 500 victims this year. A government crackdown on machete-weilding Muslim youth on April 28 left 107 dead, and another crackdown on a mob on Oct. 28 left 85 people dead, 78 of whom died of suffocation in custody while being trucked to an army base.

TAK BAI, Thailand (Reuters) - Buddhists have expressed fear and frustration to Thailand's prime minister during a visit to the country's Muslim-majority south where nearly two dozen people have died in reprisal attacks in a fortnight. More than 1,000 people gathered at a temple where Thaksin Shinawatra was taking part in an annual religious rite in Tak Bai district in Narathiwat province. Some in the crowd implored Thaksin to help end the violence in the region and calm tensions after nearly 80 Muslims died in army custody last month, triggering Muslim threats of attacks in the capital Bangkok. "We are...

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Two more Thai Buddhists have been killed in Muslim-majority southern Thailand, police say, as outrage mounted over the death last week of 85 Muslims, many in military custody. Police Major Kraw Kosaikanon, 55, was shot in the head on Thursday morning at his family grocery store in Yala province by a militant posing as a customer, officials said. In a separate incident late on Wednesday, a father and son were ambushed on a road near their home in the southern province of Narathiwat, where 85 Muslim protesters died last week, 78 of them suffocation in army custody....

Hundreds of Muslims will be prosecuted over a demonstration that led to the deaths of 87 people in southern Thailand last week, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said, in a move which could further raise tensions in the region. "I have received a report from General Sirichai Tanyasiri, head of the Southern Provinces Peacekeeping Command, that 300 of the detainees will be prosecuted," Mr Thaksin said in his weekly radio address. They will face charges including destruction of government property, staging a riot, and robbery, Gen Sirichai said. Local television showed the first of 900 other detainees being released on Saturday...

80 Thai Muslims suffocate after arrest at protest By Sebastien Berger in Bangkok (Filed: 27/10/2004) Almost 80 Muslim demonstrators arrested in southern Thailand suffocated after being crammed into army lorries, the Thai authorities admitted yesterday. Only six people were previously believed to have died when security forces opened fire to quell rioting on Monday in the Muslim-majority region adjoining the border with Malaysia. Thai soldiers arrested hundreds after clashes outside a police station The huge new toll, and the manner of the deaths, are bound to add to tensions and highlight methods to quell a 10-month rebellion that has claimed...

NAKHON SI THAMMARAT, Thailand (AFP) - The last of Thailand's troops will be out of Iraq by September 20 marking the end of a controversial year-long mission, the country's defence minister said. "We have started withdrawal procedures... and I expect our last soldier would arrive home on September 20," General Chettha Thanajaro told reporters here. Thailand sent a 451-strong contingent of troops to Iraq for a purely humanitarian mission and the one-year deployment had been due to end in late September. But UN Secretary General Kofi Annan asked the government this week to delay its departure because of the ongoing...

Thai Buddhist shrine ransacked Lights were smashed in the Lim Ko Nhieo shrine A Buddhist shrine has been ransacked in the latest violence to hit southern Thailand, following the beheading of a Buddhist farmer at the weekend. Talks on the ongoing attacks - due to have involved a separatist Muslim leader and the government - were indefinitely called off on Tuesday. Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said he was worried the talks would jeopardise security. As many as 200 people have died in the violence since the start of the year. About 20 people broke into the Lim Ko...

Wed 28 Apr 2004 printer friendly 5:32am (UK) Scores Killed as Thai Muslims Launch Attacks "PA" Thai police shot and killed more than 70 machete-wielding militants who launched simultaneous pre-dawn raids on security outposts today, in the heaviest fighting yet in the troubled Muslim-dominated south, officials said. The youths, suspected to be Islamic militants, attacked more than 15 police bases, village defence volunteer outposts and district offices in a bid to rob weapons in Yala, Pattani and Songkhla provinces, said Yala Governor Boonyasit Suwanarat. At least three policemen and one soldier were also killed. It was the bloodiest day in...

Security forces in Thailand are on high alert after the theft of a huge amount of explosives and other bomb making materials. The government says Islamic separatists are behind a recent upsurge in violence in the Muslim-dominated southern region of the country. Ten armed men raided a quarry in the southern province of Yala, stealing more than 1,300 kilograms of ammonium nitrate, 58 sticks of dynamite and 170 blasting caps. The fertiliser ammonium nitrate was the main explosive used in the Bali bombings. The government fears a major bomb attack is being planned to coincide with a major public holiday...

Thai soldiers search Islamic schools for terrorism suspects By Jan McGirk in Bangkok 13 January 2004 Thai soldiers searching for suspected Muslim militants with links to terrorism have raided Islamic schools in the three provinces bordering Malaysia. The Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who initially blamed"bandits and gun-runners" for an outbreak of violence in the provinces earlier this month, now suspects that some of the 300 islamic schools, or "madrassahs", may be fronts for militant activities. Four soldiers were killed, 21 schools set on fire and about 100 weapons stolen in an attack on an army engineering base on 4...

The trial of four Thai Muslims accused of belonging to militant terror group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) resumes in Bangkok today. It is alleged the men were plotting bomb attacks on western targets in Thailand, including the Australian Embassy. Thai Prosecutors say the four were planning simultaneous attacks on the embassies of Great Britain, the United States, Australia, Singapore and Israel. It is alleged the attacks were to have taken place last June. Other targets included popular tourist sites on the resort island of Phuket and Pattaya on the mainland. The authorities say the conspiracy was led by senior JI figure...

Thailand has suffered its first military losses on a foreign battlefield since the return of the Thai combat division from Vietnam in 1971. The truck bomb that struck down Chief Warrant Officers Mit Klaharn and Amporn Chulert shocked the nation. Their families and friends in Thailand deserve both the sympathy and respect of all the country. The military mission in Iraq must look even more carefully to its defences in the wake of the Karbala attacks. The Thai troops are halfway through their six month assignment to Iraq, and it is important they complete it. The deployment of Thai troops...

Iraqi Insurgent Attacks Kill 13, Hurt 172 22 minutes ago By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer KARBALA, Iraq - In the biggest rebel attack since Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s capture, suicide bombers and assailants with mortars and grenade launchers blasted coalition military bases and the governor's office in this southern city Saturday, killing 13 people and wounding at least 172. The death toll in Karbala included six coalition soldiers — four Bulgarians and two Thais; six Iraqi police officers; and a civilian. At least 172 people, many of them civilians caught in the chaos, were wounded in...

<p>BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's culture ministry has issued a list of 18 love songs -- including "Big Flabby Buttocks" -- which it wants to ban as part of a campaign against music it says could encourage promiscuity or marital infidelity.</p>